NATIVE LAND MATTERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9151, 25 July 1908, Page 4

NATIVE LAND MATTERS.

Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice and Native Land Commissioner, made quite a number of interesting observations in reference to native land matters and administration generally at the sitting of the Commission at Masterton yesterday. He said without hesitation tha*; the Native Land Court had been violating the law year after year, and he was surprised that it wa3 permitted 10 continue as at present. This particular comment was elicited by tha disclosures that the Court had sanctioned the sale of a property subject t) existing leases on which a restraint on alienation was imposed by an earlier deed, and that the Court had approved the sale of a small block of land at what he considered was too low a price. His Honor said that the extinction of a noble race was inevitable if the Maoris persisted in copying the manners of degenerate pakehas by expending their rentals and land sales money in the "knocking-down-the-cheqje" fashion. A well-known trait in the native character was referred to by the Commissioner when he deprecated the unwise generosity of Maoris in granting concessions to some pakehas because they believed the latter were "good fellows," when perhaps it was really a subtlety on the part of the latter to achieve a desired end. His Honor affirmed that in a great many of such transactions the pakeha was behind the whole business, and the Maoris were the machines actuated Iby the white man. He urged the Maoris t) make everything a purely business transaction, and get the utmost they could for tneir lands, no matter from whom. The Commissioner said it was very hard to get people to recognise that Maori lands and other lands were on two entirely different footings, as the Maori lanJs were simply and purely land 3 held in trust, the tribal holders being the trustees for themselves and their children. He was strongly opposed i& making the facilities for Maoris to dispose of their lands easier, and said that he was glad to see that when he explained to ore tribe- the true footing of their possession they returned unsigned a petition sent to them in favour of the removal of restrictions on . native lands.