MAORI FARMERS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 987, 5 March 1910, Page 4

MAORI FARMERS.

With regard to the recent native conference at Okaiawa, the Hon. J. Car-

roll, Minister for Native Affairs, in the course of an interview at Stratford, stated that at the present time there were about 3,000 beneficiaries from the native reserves in Taranaki, while about 400 Maoris were landleas. The whole area of land belongin to the nativea in the province was about 193,000 acres. Of this area there were some 117,000 acres leased under the perpetual lease tenure. Eighteen thousand acres that were leased under the Land Act, 1881, were not perpetual, and the leases would run out in a year or two. There were also 3,000 acres under short leases that would expire at an early date. Further, there was an area of native land, some 15,000 acres in extent, near Parihaka, that the natives desired to have cut up into areas suitable for farming pursuits. As matters at present stood, continued Mr Carroll, there was a great dearth of land for the natives to farm and live upon. The Maoris desired to secure more land for the future, so that they could go in for farming operations themselves. They were prepared to farm the land on the same lines as Europeans, and Would be subject to the same taxation. The natives did not object to any reasonable claims that the Europeans might make, should the land revert to the Maori and they further thought that the time had arrived when the Public Trustee (as administrator of Native land affairs) had fulfilled his mission, and that a change was desirable whereby the management uf their own might be more in the keeping of themselves. Te Whiti and Tohu had gone, and hundreds of their followerswere seeking una»ai!ingly for land to settle upon, having looked in vain for the prophets to secure it for them. The natives were de sirous that the question should be viewed from every standpoint, and that legislation should be framed to readjust the whole of the reserves at pre sent under the jurisdiction of the Public Trustee. Questioned as to what scheme the natives had in view with respect to paying the claims for improvements by the present occupiers of native lands, Mr Carroll stated that a fund had been started. v At present there was some £14,000 in the hands of the Public Trustee, irom which the natives secured interest at the rate of 4£ per cent. In addition, the cost of administration by the Public Trustee, 7 per cent., could be devoted to a fund, shoul d the administration be. taken over by the natives. These sums would form the nucleus of a fund for paying off the pakehas' improvement claims, and the natives hoped further to receive assistance from the Government by means of advances, pledging the land as security. The whole quescion would be brought before Parliament during next session.