MAORI LAND LEASES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9528, 28 June 1909, Page 4

MAORI LAND LEASES.

Among the complaints made by Mr A. W. Hogg, M.P., at his meeting at Wellington last week, was that settlement of the native lands of the King Country was retarded by speculators, and by the fact of the Government monopolising areas. The Native Minister (Hon. J. Carroll) is not in agreement with the suggestion. He points out that that immediately native lands are purchased by the Government they come under the administration of the Crown Lands Board, and a lot of development work has then to be done in the way of surveying and roading, all of | which takes time. It is open to both Europeans and Maoris to contract fir the leasing of native land, but every lease and sale has to be approved by the Natiye Land Board, wnose duty it is to see that the terms are fair and that the area of limitation imposed by the Land Act is strictly adhered to. "No one," he pointed out, "can acquire native land if the area he proposes to take, plus his present possessions, amounts to more than the maximum individual holding allowed by the Land Act." As to speculation, that, says the Minister, may creep into every transaction, even in crown lands. All the Government could do was to see that the limitation was rigidly adhered to. Every applicant for the alienation of Maorijand had to make a statutory declaration as to the area of his holdirgs, and boards satisfy themselves that the statement is correct. Further, any sale recommended by a board must be approved by the Governor-in-Council. As to the leases, the Minister remarks that unless you give a fifty years' tenure, or twenty-five years, with renewal of twenty-five years, people will not go into the back blocks.