SQUATTING ON MAORI LAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 319, 5 June 1911, Page 4

SQUATTING ON MAORI LAND.

COUNTY COUNCILLORS RESENT CRITICISM. WERE THE COMMENTS JUSTIFIED! The Press came in for some stricturesat Friday's meeting of the Clifton. County Council, and the Taranaki Daily News came in for the lion's share of an. unusually spirited speech by the chairman, Mr. J. W. Foreman, who rsonted certain criticisms appearing in this paper concerning the delay of the Council in dealing with the matter of collecting rates from native lands, and particularly with reference to the ratingof Maori lands in the occupancy of, but not regularly leased by, Europeans.

The chairman referred to the list of such lands, their owners and occupiers, recently compiled for the Council by, Mr. J. H. Walker, native interpreter, and asked Cr. O'Sullivan to speak, as ha understood that gentleman had something to say on the -matter.

Cr. O'Sullivan referred to a letter whiebi. appeared in the Waitara Mail, which referred the readers of that paper back to the Dajly News' criticisms of the Council in the matter. He said the Council was being accused of want of the necessary backbone to go on with the matter, but these people were writing on matters they knew nothing about, for it was only in last April that the Council had become possessed of power to make European tenants of Maori lands liable for local rates, and the Council had taken the preliminary, steps. The chairman said that he would like to make reference to "these effusions in the Press," which showed an extraordinary state of affairs. Briefly, the facts were that at the February meeting the Council passed a resolution calling the attention of the ValuerGeneral to the incorrect manner in which native lands had been entered on the roll in (the past, and asking that these should be entered in the name of the owners and occupiers. 30 that the Council could get the benefit of the recent legislation which made these lands subject to taxation. The Council at its March meeting passed another resolution authorising the employment of Mr. J. H. Walker, a native interpreter, and a man well acquainted with the whole district, to compile and furnish to the Council a list of Europeans occupying or using native lands, with a view of having their names placed on the roll as occupiers. Since that time a lot of muck had been thrown at the Council, a number of anonymous writers in the newspapers ascribing to the Council all sorts of dila-toriness, and making the insinuation that they would not more because the members of the Council were benefiting by the occupation of these lands. As a sample of the criticisms, he read extracts from an article which appeared some time in April in the columns of the Taranaki Daily News, in which it was estimated that some twenty-five of these non-pay-ing occupiers were to be found in the Waihi district, and he had been told I that there would be a dozen or so about Tikorangi. "The paper implied," he went on, "that we arc holders of these lands, and that we will not move as a council because wo would then have the rates to pay ourselves." In the Waitara paper subsequently appeared an anonymous contribution which was more offensive still, and which sought to keep up the idea that the Council was doing nothing in this matter. Alth£ugli_thaCouncil had engaged this man to furnish a report on which the Council could take action, the members were still being accused of refusing to do anything. That letter referred to a Daily News article which he had not read—and, he remarked, perhaps it was as well for his peace of mind that he had not—but which, he understood, insinuated that the councillors were not doing their duty because they were personally interested parties. It was difficult for him to believe, he said, that a respectable paper like the Daily News would make an unjustifiable nttack, which was practically a slander, on members of a body like the Clifton County Council. The only conclusion that he could come to was that the editor had had statements made to him that Europeans were holding many of these native lands, and that this was considerably affecting the revenue and the editor believed the statements, which may have come from a mnn that he thought he could rely on. He (Mr. Foreman) didn't know who made such statements—they might have been made by the Tikorangi correspondent of the News, probably they were. But not the slightest doubt existed that in publishing these statements the paper was inflicting a wrong on the Council, and that it would find it very hard to justify its course of action. It was said that this failure to collect rates from the European occupiers had been going on for years. The answer to that was that until' April last they were unable to rate then* European occupiers, for they were not rateable unless the lands' were held under a certain tenancy. The new Act enme into force on April 1, and dilatoriness was hard to prove when the Council took action in February and March to secure the benefits from that legislation.

There were other charges. The News accused the Council of ineptitude and unbusinesslike methods. He wasn't going to say much about that. The writer might be right. They might not possess great business-like qualities, but they did their best, and he was content to leave the matter to those best able to judge, nut he would repeat that th« Council had taken all the steps possible to collect rates from native lands, whother occupied by natives or bv Europeans. With regard to the anonymous letter, Wring, people often put into these what they would not write over their awn signatures, and some of the stuff wSuMtltV' 0 dCCent - P«*» Cr. Sander said he considered tho newspaper comment reflected on tho «™t th individl »>% and "lie*

The chairman added that there wa« only one member of the Council interestr? 2U 1 ?? cu l )!,tion of Maori land*, tr. 0 Sullivan: And even then, that 7lfTf ?°- obstnclM '* the way of the rates being collected. n n ?T f cl ? nz!e: Thnt man is mvself. and T don't care who knows it. I hn ™ the Maori landf I occupy, as Cr. Sander vnllteHvn,,. T f the owner of the lnnrf had received a demand for rate, \ZZ on the roll, I suppose. Anyhow T havn't tried to hide the thin* and T tKTi. * e PP ? lc 1 the ««ner. Thcfhmrman: T thimc thev're hittinu track. Ivo been out of it for three j;^r <,i " orsthpnpnsso<iontootn^ . [Wo , ref, ' r *" Hie above i„ our leading column.—Rd.] nn