A STRIKING SPEECH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3199, 27 May 1909, Page 5

A STRIKING SPEECH.

ON AN IMPORTANT QUESTION. THE NATIVE LAND PROBLEM. MR W. JJ BIRCH GIVES THE FARMERS HIS VIEW. Unquestionably one of the most thoughtful and concise speeches delivered on any of the major questions before the . Farmers' Union Conference at Eketahuna on Tuesday was that given by Mr W. J. Birch, the Marton delegate, on the question of Native land policy. The Marton Branch had sent a remit urging individualisation of Maori titles, and Mr Birch, who is a recognised authority on .Native matters, in moving the remit as a motion said:—"I fully believe that the Maori has arrived at that stage at whicli it is necessary both for the individual and foe the race that he should be placed on the same position both as to his privileges and his responsibilities as his fellow subjects. The system of TREATING THE MAORI AS A

CHILD, endeavouring to guard him from the effects of his own shortcomings must come to an end if he is to develop into a man worthy of the name. The sooner he acquires a knowledge of his personal rights and responsibilities and a sense of the benefits of industry, the better for him and the more likely that some of his race will survive the contact r.f civilisation. I claim that I have a great feeling of sympathy for the Maori race, which has many noble qualities, but we have to face facts. We have brought them into contact with a

CIVILISATION WHICH THEY MUST ADOPT and become amalgamated with, or

fail altogether in the competition, j He must give up his native ideas of communal ownership of land. It is necessary that he should hold his i land on an individual title, and that he"shou)d deal with it ae he thinks fifc'with all the freedom of a European owner without any of those arificial restraints which place him out of those personal responsibilites which are the making of a civilised man. This would do more to solve the national problem than all the recommendations which Sir Robert Stout and such like Maori land doctrinaries suggest. There have been frequent examples of this sort of legislation—all failures as far as 1 know. course it is said that the Maori cannot take care of himself, and if this were done he would speedily get rid of his land and become a pauper. Probably he would get rid of a great portion of his land —that would be entirely IN THE INTEREST. OF SETTLEMENT.

But why should he be a pauper? H< Osgood sound limbs and consider ible intelligence. He would onlj lave to use both as any other manie would be a better man for it Their present indolent habits, engenlered from living on the unearnec ncrement accruing to them througl ,he industry of the pakeha, is fatal t< ;hem. The people of the Dominioi lave shown themselves to be, bv ;heir legislation, opposed to any sys;em of landlordism. Although I air iarfrom thinking that the English lystem of landlordism is the unmitigated evil which it is the fashior iere to consider it, I strongly object ;o the system of Maori landlordism, vhich is sought to be set up here, t has in it the WORST FEATURES OP LANDLORDSIM md none of the good. In the interists of the Maori and for the ultinate benefit of the Native* race we nust now place the Maori on the lame position as the European, give lim the same privileges ana the same ■esponsibiiities—it would .not be •igbt to do one without the other. It s absurd that Native lands should be ;ree from taxation, and that the jakeha alone should bear the whole veight of the rates which are expended in opening up the co»ntry, ind adding value ,to their lands. On ihe other hand we must, if we make them liable for rates, give L .hem the same privileges as othei ratepayers. IT IS A GREAT PROLBEM | fio doubt, but it must be faced anc iealt with. The present 'Taihoa' policy which our Native Department delights in must end, and the questions must .be tackled in some more energetic manner. In mj )pinion the question is only to be solved by individualising the titles, md placing the Maori on the same footing as the pakeha in regarc joth to his privileges and his responsibilities doing away with Maori representation, but giving the NTative the same franchise as the )akeha." (Loud gpplause).