MAORI HOME RULE.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 241, 29 January 1898, Page 3

MAORI HOME RULE.

The followiug letter appeared in the columns of the Evening Pest, Wellington, November 29Ji, under the above heading. The writer, Reni Tuhakaina, is a Son of the late well-known Ngatihaua chitf, Hone Tuhakaina, who lived at Tamahere. Sir,—ln justice to those who have the we)fa:e of the Maori race at heart, I crave leave to reply to your able article on Mr Kaihau's Hill of 50 clauses. Those under who:* authority the Bill was drawn (for Mr Kaihau is hut their spokesman, their representative to give expression to their wishes), these real promoters of the Bill, sec that the Native Land Court has been a failure, and is the fertile source of trouble to both rac;s. It is a direct loss to the taxpayer of atout £15,000 a year, to say nothing of its being a troub'e to each successive adminh>tration'hit cones into power. It is, however, a far greater source of trouble to the natives themselves. By its tardy and cumbersome process of investigation, claims take mouths, sometimes years to investigate, during which the tiibcs interested are kept away fiom their homes, their cultivations are neglected, they become drunken, waste their money playing billiards, contract European vices and often dis:ase All this while they are paying out money and impoverishing themselves and their families, till, when the case is decided, they find themselves heau'ly in debt. Then* the unsuccessful party appeals, and the case has to be gone through de novo ; then come Purtitiou Courts and further expense, to which must be added one or more surveys, until finally the land is more than eaten up by expense. The Macri finds he has lost his money, and the land has to be sold to pay his debts. Then steps in the paternal Government and offers Is lOd an acre for swamp or 2s 6d for dry land which has cost, perhaps us or 7s to put through the Court; creditors are pressing, they hear the Crown wants to buy, and writs or summorses are issued, and orders for imprisonment are obtained to force the native to sell. The result too often is the storekeeper gets paid, the Crown get tho land, and the landless Maori applies to the Charitable Aid Board for relief. This 's the experience if the Waikato Maori delegates who interviewed the Premier the other day, and these statements can be verified by the evidence being given before the Native Affairs Corrnrttee in support of the petition. It needs no great prophet to predict that ete long, unless a change in the law is made, you Pakehas will have to face the questions of what to do with landless Maoris. You will either have to give them laud upon which to grow food or else charitable aid. That is why the chiefs arc aik : ng that land selling shall be stopped. Another word of the Maori to you is their Bill is not Home Rule ; it is only local self-government under, the laws of the Que»n. The Government nominates a fair proportion of the members ot the Council, aid when the titles to the land are ascertained the Government Land Transfer Office issues the Crown giants No lease or alienation can be given effect to or registered unless the Land Transfer Registrar receives the documentary evidence that the Maori alienating has a papa kaingu reserve—i.e., proper land left to support himself and family. The Maori race, though downcast and oppressed, are loyal to the Queen, and they are human beings, members of the great, human family. They are your brothers, und, Mr Editor, you would not be so unkind, so cruel, as to kick a brother while he was down. Henare Kaihau's Bill is not the wildest of dreams of the educated Young Macri Party. It is the result of the long and careful deliberation of the raugatiras and kaumatuas (old to en) of the race. From one end of the colony to the others trom the time of the first Native Land Court till uow the race has been crying out in gnat pain at the sufferings caused by bad native land la»vs. They come to Parliament asking for relief from their tioubles—asking that their rights under the Treaty of Waitangi and Constitution Act be restored to tin m, and propose legislation which they think will afford them relief, and you, Mr Editor, at once set to work with your whip of Home Rule to make the paiu in the Maori hearts greater.