MAORI CO-OPERATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 46, 3 June 1910, Page 5

MAORI CO-OPERATION.

DEVELOPING THEIR OWN LAND. By Telegraph —Press Association. Wellington, Last Niglit. A proposal to carry on co-operative farming among the Maoris of the Wanganui river was 1 put before the Hon. James Carrol] (Native Minister), when he visited Jerusalem, the Wanganui river settlement, last week. Operations are to proceed on a large scale. They will commence on a block of 0000 aeres, under the direction of a manager appointed by the Maori Land Board of the district adjoining. The co-operative farm will be an area of 1000 acres, reserved for general cultivation. Here the Maoris who are not employed on the large farm may profit by the example it affords. The finances are already in an cellcnt condition, as the natives' have allocated to the venture an annual revenue of £llOO from European leases,, and also a fund of £2OOO, which was created for the purpose. Another block of 5000 acres can be added if the farm proves successful. . The manager will have working with him, in administering the farm, a committee representing the Maori land owners. Several hundred natives are interested in the block, a>nd if it had been leas'ed their individual incomes would have been extremely small, but the farming of the land with their own labor will give them healthy and highly profitable occupation.