UNPAID NATIVE RATES
MINISTER VISITS WHAKATANE COUNCILS DETAIL HARDSHIPS From Our Oicn Corresporidcnt WHAKATANE, Today. The S A] - x. • Nat Minister; Judge Carr: and Mr. Tai Mitchell, officer in charge of the native land consolidation scheme, and Mr. A. K. Balneavis, the Minister's private secretary, were met by a deputation from the Whakatane and Tauranga County Councils yesterday ip regard to the consolidation of native lands in the Bay of Plenty, and the payment of arrears of native rates. Mr. W. Beid, chairman of the Whakatane County Council, explained that £19,000 was owing to his county, and with the next two years rates during consolidation would bring the amount to £25,000. He asked, in view of the valuable lands held by natives, and - expensive working schemes undertaken by the council, tha.t the commission would award not less than 25 per cent, of the arrears. Mr. C. E. Macmillan. M.P.. supported the request, and contended that native rates not collectable should be paid out of the Consolidated Fund. This would be more equitable than districts with large native populations having to bear the full burden. Sir Apirana explained that the Xgatiawa natives in Opotiki and Whakatane districts had decided upon a scheme of consolidation, and the Whakatane natives had offered to the Crown approximately 6.000 acres of land by way of compensation for payment of arrears of rates. The Government valuation of the land, however, was about £SOO short of the amount required to make up 25 per cent, of the total- rate arrears on native lands concerned in Whakatane. The question would be submitted to the Xative Land Consolidation Commission at Rotorua, and a reply would be sent to the council within a week. The chairman of the Tauranga County Council. Mr. Sinclair, pointed out that N there were 50,000 acres of native lands in Tauranga on which native rates were not collectable.
The Minister promised to go into the position of the Tauranga lands with the commissioner.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SUNAK19291129.2.95
Bibliographic details
Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 833, 29 November 1929, Page 10
Word Count
328UNPAID NATIVE RATES Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 833, 29 November 1929, Page 10
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Sun (Auckland). You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in