THE NORTHERN LAND LEAGUE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9602, 23 September 1909, Page 5

THE NORTHERN LAND LEAGUE.

To the Editor. Sir,—This league has resolved upon issuing the following manifesto, and respectfully ask you r support and sympathy in the cause of reform. 1. The conditions under which natives hold their lands are utterly unsatisfactory because:—(a) They cannot sell; (b) they cannot lease, except under difficult restric tions; (c) they cannot themselves effectively occupy their own lands, because they are held in common. 2. The quantity ot land held as waste country by the natives in the North is out of all proportion to their requirements. 3. Rates are not col lectable on this great area of native land, the value of which is being enhanced by the pxpenditure of rates paid by European occupiers, and by subsidies and grants by the State. 4. The native owners of lands, under a policy which crushes out all hope of developing the country by tha Europeans, are themselves brought to beggary, 5. This native land policy as been continuous in i 3 effects for twenty years, has lowered the character of tha native, has distinctly prevented progress in the dis tricts affected, and is a cause of unemployment. 6. The native land laws, special and general, are so numerous that no one can understand them. 7. When bush lands are taken over by the Maori Land Council for administration they are offered to the public on terms which a capitalist only could successfully comply with, which are unduly favourable to the native owner, and, in, some cases (e.g., thei Karae block in Hokianga), the land l is valued at nearly three hundred per cent, more than the crown lands of the same quality in the same block. 8 Native owners of land cannot be compellsd to fence, to keep down noxious weeds, or to pay rates, and although nominally owners Of wealth in land, th ey are penniless and seek charitable aid and old agd pensions. 9 The country, wherever there is much nat ive land, is at a standstill, the natives are ruined, and the Europeans are prevened from developing the resources of the country. Reform is therefore urgently needed, and we believe that the only effective reform is to be found in the Government taking over the whole of the unoccupied native lands and treat them the same as crown lands, using the revenue from auch lands in the interest ot the native race in such manner as to be equitable to both the European and Maori* The annual subscription to this league has been made the nominal sum of two shillings and sixpence. which may, if so desired, be paid to the "Hokianga Times," Kohukohu, oi the league's secretary. W. GROUNDS, Broadwood. (Can the Northern Land League seriously expect reform from an administration against which it levels so telling an indictment?— Ed. W.A.)