Land Tenure for Maoris.

Maori Record : a journal devoted to the advancement of the Maori people, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 August 1905, Page 1

Land Tenure for Maoris.

At a time when the total unalienated landed estate of the Maoris has been calculated at 5,000,000 acres, and it is proposed, in the interest of settlement, to bring this area into occupation, making ample provision for an agricultural, pastoral, industrial and resident Maori people, as well as throw open for beneficial European occupation the overplus, it is necessary to enquire what security of tenure has been extended to the Maori on the reserves made for him on his own lands in the past. Compensation Awards, being alienable by consent of the Governor-in-Council, have almost entirely passed into European occupation. Compensation Awards, of which the Crown Grants were not yet issued, were, on the West Coast, merged in the West Coast Settlement Reserves. Compensation awards were awarded to loyal natives whoso lands had been confiscated. There has, we believe, been no such investigation of the position of the Compensation Awards on the East Coast, and in Waikato, as was made by Sir Dillon Bell and Sir William Fox, in the early eighties, on the West Coast. Hence we are driven to the latter for object lessons. Of Compensation Awards for what are called absentees, those not present in the wars which led to confiscation, 10,100 acres were gazetted by recommendations of the Commissioners above alluded to as reserves to “satisfy the Government Absentee Awards.” We believe these lands have been sold by the Government, and the proceeds added to the land revenue of the colony. A Commission ordered by the House of Representatives in the session of 1903 sat in New Plymouth to enquire in June last as to what had become of the 3000 acres set aside for the Ngatimutixnga absentees. The report has not yet been laid before Parliament, but evidence tended to show that the lands had been sold on account of pressure brought to bear by the local governing body. We have a detailed list of sections sold by the Government on the lands set aside for the Taranaki absentees, and we believe that those set apart for Ngatiawa natives have also been so alienated. These two blocks total 5800 acres. (Parliamentary Papers, 1884. A 58.) An investigation into the fate of the 1,192,000 acres, nominally confiscated on the West Coast, will give us an idea as to what will become of the

only five million acres left to he dealt with in New Zealand should similar lines be followed. And after these are operated upon there are no lands left from which to justify the favourable verdict of the world as to the righteousness of our dealings with the Maori people in respect to their lands. Of the 1,192,000 acres on the West Coast, by recommendation of the Commissioners 201,385 were Granted to the people of the tribes, 5289 individually named, by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, for themselves and their children for ever. Of these lands the Public Trustee has in his hands approximately 180,000 acres. Individual reserves and special reserves may make up the discrepancy between his figures and those of the Commissioner’s report. Of the 180.000 acres, 128,000 acres have been let to Europeans on a perpetual right of renewal; 20.000 acres have been made subject to licenses to occupy by natives; and 30,000 acres may bo alienated at any time if the ruthless work is not stopped. There is a gleam of light in the Premier’s Rotorua speech. In making the reserves the Commissioners aimed at fulfilling the statutory requirement of 50 acres per capita. They were not able to do so. Subsequent statutory power given to'the Public Trustee disregarded this law, which forbids any alienation of a native’s land unless he or she has 50 acres left for maintenance. On an average, on the occupation-license land, the natives have not four acres, and that they axe obliged to pay rent for. The security of their tenure even of this lies in the will of the Public Trustee, and we have not one word to say against the individual. To demonstrate the position we have devoted this number of the Record. And this is the more necessary on account of the scheme to take away the native freehold and give it to their lessees. The rest of the 1,182,000 being occupied by Europeans, there is no land from which to add to the miserable areas to which the natives have been reduced by the granting to. Europeans of perpetual right of renewal of their leases.