The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 31. NATIVE LANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 31 July 1907, Page 2

The Daily News WEDNESDAY, JULY 31. NATIVE LANDS.

The general report of the Native Land Commission (Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, and Mr A. T. Ngata. M.H.R.) upon the lands dealt with and covered by interim reports murks a new and (we hope) a brighter period in the settlement of a problem thai our public men have been struggling with in vain fur many years past. The Commissioners liavc assiduously applied themselves to the very difficult, involved, and •itupeiiilo is woik set them, and, for thetime they have been engaged, have done particularly well. The report deals with lauds in Poverty Hay, llawke's Hay, and the Wnnganui district and King Country, amounting in all to over half-a-million acres, twofifths of which they propose should be set a>iils for native occupation and the remainder made available for leasing and selling to Europeans. The Commissioners make some important recommendations regarding tho disposition and management of the lands, and it is not surprising that the policy pursued

ill the past in tlu',e connections comes in for their comleiunatipn. They state but plain truths when they affirm:— ■The history ot over forty years legislation on the subject of the confusion of our native land laws reveals sharp chances or oscillations of policy, corres 1 ponding v,ith changes of Government and political parties. While there has been no material change in the method of investigating titles, the mind of the Legislature has swung like a pendulum between the extremes of restriction against private alienation and free trade in native lands." They recommend that the purchase of native lands by the Crown under the present system lie discontinued, also that alienation by direct negotiation between the owners and private individuals be discontinued, further alienations only to be made through the Native Land Boards as agents for the owners. The Boards, the Commissioners hold, should be constituted ns at present, except that the presidents should be drawn from men experienced in c;t.liri«r up aud letting land and should be Government officers paid by the Government, with a competent accountant as clerk and receiver, i'hey would give considerable powers to the Boards, amongst them being the power to sell any laud, if the owner is desirous, after due enquiry, in order to raise money for the purpose of roading, surveying, opening land for settlement, or to discharge liens and encumbrances; in order to raise money to enable owners to farm, or for purchase of other lands for them, etc. If the Maori is helped to help himself, he can, if sufficient interest is taken in his welfare, make a success of farming—a fact which has been proved time after time on the East Coast, and, in a lesser degree, in the southern part of this province. This has been recognised by the Commissioners, who propose to give powers to the Boards to advance money to the Maori holders of land, and to generally assist them to work out their own destinies. The tenor of the report, as a matter of fact, is the helping of the Maori. It is a laudable idea, but it may be that the Commissioners, in their zeal , in this direction, have overlooked in some measure the claims of the pakeha population, who have claims just as strong as the natives. We were hoping that the Commissioners would deal a death blow to the old communistic system, which has been responsible for a great deal of the retrogression of the Maori in the past, and the individualisation of titles substituted, and the native thus put on a level with the pakeha, but the Commissioners think otherwise, for they say: "It had been suggested that to meet the difficulty of title the lands should be partitioned, but the Commissioners think that even if the number of Native Land Court Judges were increased twofold, even if partition were promptly surveyed by an adequate staff of surveyors, and the whole costs of these proceedings borne by the State, the task would be impossible of achievement within such limit of time as to satisfy the impatience of the country for the speedy settlement of tin- unoccupied Maori lands. The researches of the Commissioners have convinced them that the proposal is not in the interests of the Maori people as a whole, that it is in many cases unnecessary, in some merely wasteful. It is inimical to speedy settlement, aud impossible to carry out in a practical and effective manner, apart altogether from the enormous cost that it would entail upon the land aud its owners." We can hardly make ourselves believe that the difficulty of individualisation of titles is so great as all this. There must be some simple and inexpensive way out of the difficulty. To our inind the individualisation of titles is absolutely necessary before the Maori can advance very materially. To perpetuate communism is to oiler a premium to idleness; in fact, the words '■communism" and "laziness" are synonymous in the case of a large majority of the Maoris. Give the Maori his own piece of land to look after and work, and he will hustle and toil as the pakeha has to. Left to his resources he would have to do this or go under. The evils of communism are so apparent that it is surprising the Commission should advise and encourage its continuance. It is to be hoped Parliament will carefully consider this aspect of the problem when the proposals are laid before them, and take some means—and surely means can be found —to strike at the root of the evil, and put the Maori on a more independent and self-reliant basis than the Commissioners propose. Also, that they will see that a bigger proportion of the lands than proposed by the Commissioners is set aside for sale to Europeans, and the State given power to buy whatever Maori land is necessary for settlement purposes. The debarring of private dealing with natives for land has our cordial support. Our regret is that some such embargo was not in evidence years before. The whole Maori bind question has been a bugbear to i-um'inive Administrations, and a big hindrance to the proper utilisation of great tract.•> of country in the North Island, and it is to be earnestly hoped that something practical will como out (if the recommendations of the Commission, and that Parliament will deal with the proposals and suggestions with a.-i little delay as possible, and with every regard for the rights of Maori and I . pakeha, and the State. |