MAORI ELECTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1054, 19 August 1930, Page 16

MAORI ELECTION

MR. PIAHANA'S CAMPAIGN From Our Own Correspondent TAURANGA, Today. Following an address to tribes of the Tauranga district at Matapihi Pa during the week-end, Mr. IT. H. Piahana, of Tauranga, Reform candidate in the Western Maori electorate, was promised support by many leading natives. Today Mr. Piahana is to address a meeting at Rotorua, and he will later proceed to the Waikato district to continue his campaign. In his speech at Matapihi Pa, Mr. Piahana pointed out that the Waikato War had ended in the confiscation of a considerable amount of Maori land. The area originally confiscated was 1,202,172 acres. Of this, 314,364 acres had been returned to the natives and 112,180 acres bought by the Crown, leaving the area actually confiscated at 775,628 acres. It was during the term of office of the Reform Party and by the efforts of the late Sir Maui Pomare that the grievances of the natives received much consideration and compensation of £5,000 a year was granted to the Waikato tribes. Mr. Piahana pointed out that the Ngai-To Rangi tribe had been victorious at Gate Pa but it had not seized European land. He dealt with certain aspects of the Treaty of Wai-r tangi as it affected the Maoris at the present time.