THE GOVERNMENT'S CHANGE OF FRONT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12634, 23 October 1905, Page 8

THE GOVERNMENT'S CHANGE OF FRONT.

<" N.Z. Herald.") The question of the speedy and effective settlement of the vast tracts of surplus Maori land now lying locked up and unproductive is of sucli vital importance to the prosperity and progress of the whole of the North Island, and to Auckland more particularly, that we welcome the belated proposals of the Government to render &ojne of these great areas available for European occupation, though the proposals themselves fall far short of what is required in dealing with a matter of such paramount colonial interest. As we have pointed out in our articles on the subject of the great Maori Land Question, there are nearly eight million acres of native land whioh the fatuous policy of the Government has kept for years lying idle and blocking settlement in tho North. This enormous estate, comprising some of the finest Land in the island, has during all that time ■been jealously locked up, and its owners • kept in poverty because of their inability to 'alienate a single rood of it, while to satisfy the ever-growing earth hunger the Government have been purchasing, at the cost of many hundreds of thousands of pounds, cultivated estates in the South. To all representations—from both Maori and pakeha alikie —to change this intolerable and unjust state of things the Government have persistently turned a deaf ear. The result, as we have shown in these columns over and over again, has been to seriously retard settlement, and hamper the legitimate expansion of the r,'orth. But public opinion has at last proved stronger than the Government, and has forced them on the eve of the general election to abandon a position which was no longer tenable. The Premier 'has now (had to make the tardy and reluctant confession that bis Maori land policy has proved a failure —for that is what the change of front amounts to and has been compelled to adopt the policy of the Opposition, an experience which is not altogether new to Mr Seddon. But the party aspect of the question is. a mere circumstance in comparison with the vastly more important considerations involved in the opening up of the Maori land. We welcome the Government proposals as an indication of a new departure, and a recognition on the part of Ministers of facts to which they have long remained wilfully blind*. If the land which they now prdpose to acquire from the natives at its land tax valuation, handing the money over to the owners, is thrown open on the optional tenui'e, there can be no doubt that an immense stimulus will be given to settlement, and that the progress of the districts affected will be greatly accelerated.