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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8867, 30 October 1907, Page 4

The stonewall which was set up in the House of Representatives, on Monday night, on the schedule, to the National Endowment Bill was resumed yesterday afternoon. Mr Massey moved to reduce the endowment reservations by 4,500,000 acres on the ground that the area proposed to be reserved was unreasonable and unnecessary, and, while placing a bar in the way of profitable settlement, was utterly useless for educational or old age pensions purposes. He got a backing of twenty members, but that was seventeen too few for the requirements of the occasion. Thereafter, members from all of the House moved amendments to reduce the area of endowments in their particular districts,while voting against reductions in the districts of "the other fellows." The division bell rang freely throughout the evening for some hours, when the stonewall suddenly collapsed, and the schedule was added to the bill without amendment. The third reading of the bill will be taken to-day.

The proposal of the Government to give the Maori carved house at Tablelands to the Martinborough Town Board for erection in Martinborough is being vigorously opposed by a large section of the Maoris in the Wairarapa. When the lats Mr Seddon made arrangements for the Papa--1 wai pah to be taken over by the Government it was for the purpose of keeping therei'i all specimens of i native workmanship in the Wairarapa. It was an understanding that, in accordance with this arrangement, the Maori house now at Tablelands, and which was carved at Papawai, should be erected at the Papawai pah. The Government appear to have overlooked this part of the arrangement, and instead of having the carved house erected at Papawai have decided to hand it over to the Town Board of Martinborough for erection there. The gift of the Papawai land comprising the pah has, however, not yet been formally completed by the natives, and it is understood that, pending a satisfactory settlement of the difficulty

which has now cropped up and the ascertainment of the rights of the natives in respect of the carved house, no steps will be taken to complete the gift. Messrs Robinson and Robinson, of Masterton, on behalf of the natives concerned, Lave forwarded a protest to the Native Minister (Hon. J. Carroll) against the proposal of the Government to have the Maori house erected at Martinborough.