NATIVE LAND BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8985, 20 November 1907, Page 6

NATIVE LAND BILL.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS. MR CARROLL MOVES SECOND READING. By Telegraph—Pre-,s Association. WELLINGTON, Tuesday. In the House of Representatives, this afternoon the Hon. J. Carroll, in moving the second reading of the Native Land Settlement Bill, said that the area of land investigated by the Native Commission consisted of 556,737 acres, and the Commission recommended that it be disposed as follows: —(a) By sale, 66,023 acres; (b) by lease, 280,737 acres, and for Maori occupation 209,801 acres under various tenures. The question arose as to whethti" the bill should apply to the land already reported or made to apply to areas to be reported on during the next twelve months. •In view of the demand for land for settlement the Minister thought any unbiased and disinterested mind

would concede that the operations of the bill should apply not merely to areas already reported on but to areas to be reported on. In consequence of the great demand for land and the amount of land unsettled in the King Country it was essential that this bill should pass, and every delay meant a setting-back of settling the question of settlement of native lands. Continuing he urged that if hon. members studied the proposals of the bill they must agree that no harm could come from placing the measure on the Statute Book. On the other hand it would be of immense good to the country. Clause 3—"investing native lands in nativ6 land he agreed, perhaps the most important one in the bill and that disposed of there was, he said, no reason why the bill should not be speedily passed, especially as, though members differed in minor points, they agreed on the principal points. Referring to the late day of introducing the bill, he contended that there was no subject which had occupied so much time and attention of members as the proposals contained in the bill had from the very commencement of the session. | Though this was only an instalment of a policy it necessarily curtailed the range of members' criticism, but as a policy laid down by the House it would be for the House next session to make a complete consolidation of all Native Land Acts. The Minister went on to say that there was a far larger side to this question which had not yet been touched, and could not be touched at present owing to the lateness of the session. It had never been considered how they were to deal with larger areas, and how they were to place natives on their own lands, and armed with provisions to allow of them occupying a similar position to that of Europeans. This was another reason why this bill should be confined to a limited area as they were only dealing with the question from the point of view of public settlement. Provision was made in the bill for the vesting of land in the Maori Land Boards in a casa where native land is not required for occupation by native owners. Referring to the question of settling natives Jon their own lands he said they would be losing a valuable asset to the State if they did not see to the natives being settled. Mr Carroll went on to say that private dealings by Maoris with land effected had so far as possible been done away with. That might, he said, be hard in some cases where a Maori wanted credit, but in the long 1 run it would, he believed, be found to be the most advantageous. In setiing apart land for sale the Crown was given the first option of taking it at a price fixed by the board, and f in such a case the very action of taking the land placed it under the ordinary land laws of the country, and a deal of expense was avoided thereby, the land becoming converted to Crown lands without expense. Under part 2 provision was made for setting the land apart for. occupation by Maoris, and under the same section the board acred as agents for the Maori owners. He went on to say that the bill only dealt with land that the Commission had dealt with. It was subdivided into three sectionsland for public sale, public lease and Maori occupation-—and machinery was provided fur the purposes. At present it was confined to an area of 556,731 acres, but in twelve months they might include a million or a million and a-half acres. For that reason he urged it was not wise in the interest of settlement to limit the operations of the bill to the present area. The Minister went on to say that he hoped that members would assist to place the measure on the Statute Book as a preliminary to a more comprehensive measure that would be brought down next session. Mr Herries urged that the bill should be confined to the area of land already reported upon, and if this

were done he would be quite prepared to give the measure a fair trial. Mr Ngata, who was one of the Native Land Commissioners, said that the Maori ideal of land tenure was against the whole of the legislation from 1900 onwards. The Maori wanted to be left alone, and to have the right to unrestricted freedom in dealing with Europeans. Since 1865 the Maori had, he said, begun to try to disentangle himself from his fellows, and individualise his land and adopt the same methods as the pakeha. The natives had been driven into a corner, and it was not right to say that the pakeha should take what

he wanted and leave the Maori the crumbs. He was opposed to the bill when it first came down, but the Maori members had been met by the Government and the bill amended in committee. If the Maori proved he could farm his«land then in a period of 40 or 50 years there would be more need for reserving land for the Maoris. On these grounds the Maori members were opposed to the leasing of lands for a longer period than 50 years. He added that facilities had been given to Europeans to go on the land, and he urged that similar facilities should be given Maoris. This bill for the first time initiated facilities in this direction. He was one of those optimists who had thought the Maoris were capable of becoming fanners, and instances of the Maori's adaptability for fanning were numerous in the Bay of Plenty and other districts cases where the natives had not had the advantage of assistance from the Government, but had succeeded in making' headway as agriculturalists and sheepfarmers. Mr Massey complained that the Government had not followed the recommendation of the Commission, but had set apart half the area for leasehold and half for freehold. He went on to say that not one per cent, of the population understood the bill, and he was convinced that not one per cent, of the natives would accept the bill. He added that whilst chey could lead the natives they could not be coerced. He protested against legislation of this nature being brought down so late in the session, and urged that it should be discussed during the recess, and discussed by the newspapers, so that the people who had no knowledge of the provisions of the bill could know what it meant. It was, he said, no use tinkering with an old machine that should be thrown on the scrap heap, and replaced by a new one. Mr Kaihau said the Maoris had not asked for the bill, and would not support it. He had supported the Government for years, but if the bill passed he would support them no longer. If the bill'was not postponed a number of Maori chiefs had decided to go direct to England with their objections, and he urged that they should not be driven to this course, but the bill be deferred and the matter settled in New Zealand. He moved that the bill be postponed for hearing until next session. Discussion is proceeding.