MR HOGG ON NATIVE LANDS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8480, 6 July 1907, Page 4

MR HOGG ON NATIVE LANDS.

INTERRUPTED BY A STRANGER IN THE GALLERY. WHO IS FORCIBLY REMOVED. By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, July.s. In the House of Representatives, yesterday, Mr A. W. Hogg said that he considered that it was high time the searchlight was thrown on the manner in which native lands were acquired by certain Europeans. The practice had been to lease lands for a term of years. Then advantage was taken of the necessi lous position of the native holders to get restrictions removed, and thus secure the freehold. He knew of an instance where a sawmiller leased native land for 21 years. The timber worked out in a few years, and the sawmiller became pure and simply the landowner. He urged that a measure should be passed forbidding private dealings in native lands. Whilst Mr Hogg was protesting against the undue aggregation of native lands in his electorate, he was interrupted by a stranger in the Gallery interjecting: "You're quite wrong, Mr Hogg." The Speaker ordered the offender's removal. He did not leave until he was forcibly removed. The Hon. J. Carroll, replying to Mr A. W. Hogg, argued that native lands in the district of Masterton were more closely settled than any other portion of the colony. All through the history of the colony he natives had been magnanimuos in trying to meet the interests of the colony, and the desires of European settlers. Contrasting the Maoris and Europeaans, he said the more the latter acquired wealth the more selfish they became. No so the Maori, who. when he had amassed wealth, realised the responsibilities of his position. At Masterton 2,480 acres of land was still held by natives, while 3,650 were leased to Europeans. The Maoris had sold 1.025 acres to Europeans, and 57,978 to the Crown for settlement. Who would say these natives had retarded settlement, and who was going to deny the right of the natives to be settled on their own land? The Maoris had j beeu generouslin the past, and no Government ever had any difficulty in I getting from them large areas of land for settlement.