MAORI LANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 838, 12 March 1903, Page 1

MAORI LANDS.

The special correspondent of the Auckland Herald in a series of articles dealing with the northern portion of Auckland, thus refers to the question of native lands: — ~ This favored part of the world, this great sweep of rolling country, with its long harbor frontage, its tidal streams, its fresh water creeks, its mild, beautiful climate, is desolate, whereas it should be carrying thousands on thousands of prosperous inhabitants. Maori ownership and communism account for much of this desolation, though under Maori ownership and communism it was one of the most populous and prosperous parts of New Zealand. The action of our Government and previous Government towards the Maori has had, and is having, ruinous results. The Maori is not by nature, and never was, an idle, shiftless person. Under his old chiefs he worked and fought right well. The pnkehu Government has taken away the power of the chiefs, and theoretically increased the power of the individual. It has killed communism, and at the same time put individualism under thrall. The present Government have been repeatedly asked to legislate more favorably on the Maori land question, and those Aucklanders who know how the progress of their province is hampered by Maori land ownership cry out against the injustice done to them and their children, by this wretched system which keeps huge blocks of fertile country locked against settlement, and a bar to roads ana railways. But the injustice done to the white settlers of the North by this blind and ignorant policy is as nothing to the cruel and shameful wrong done to tho Maoris. The Government, which theoretically acknowledges the right of the Maoris to their lands, treats them as slaves in the disposal of it, and prevents them working it as surely as if they put armed guards upon it. The wrong done to the Maoris, tho cruel injustice inflicted, the degradation wrought, needs blazoning forth at home and abroad, so that pressure can be brought by public opinion to alter the policy of the Government. The policy of the Government briefly put is this ; It prevents the Maori selling his land to pakeha settlers. It will not buy the lands through its State officers, and it will not individualise the rights and titles of its Maori owners, consequently neither Maori nor pakeha can work the ground. The Government rulers may contradict this, and say that the Maori has lull liberty to work his lands. This is not so. We killed the Maori as an industrialist when we broke the power of the Maori chieis and spoilt the tribal system of communism. I asked many intelligent Maoris why I they did not cultivate their lands or rear stock. “ If I cultivate a piece of ground,’’ was the invariable reply, “other Maoris who do not work will come and eat my crops." That is the point, that is the evil which is degrading and ruining the Maori, which hampers the industrious and encourages the thriftless. And it is one of the strongest arguments against the crude forms of land nationalisation or State communism now advocated. Under the present form of things the lazy and dissolute Maori has the same right to land and its products as the energetic and sober worker. The descendant of slaves, who, under the old system, would have been kept at work by fear of death or hunger, can eat the crops someone else has planted. Who but a fool will till the ground if someone else receives the produce ? Let our Government individualise the rights of the Maoris to their lands, give them their titles so that they can sell or hold. Such a step would add thousands of workers to our ranks of producers, for the best Maoris are farmers by nature. The thriftless would have to s work their land, or part with it, and large areas must of necessity be open to pakeha occupation, for the Maoris hold far more land than they can possibly work. If it were only to raise the Maoris to a better position than they now hold, to encourage the industrious among them, to spur the careless, it would be worth all the expense and trouble the legal task would cost. It would do more than raise the status of the Maoris and make them producers of national wealth. It would break up the barriers to Northern progress, give an impetus to the construction of roads and railways, and encourage settlement to such a degree that North Auckland, instead of being sparsely populated, would be the most densely settled of any part of New Zealand, and the Hokianga County, instead of having less than two persons to the square mile, would have dozens. The opening of the native lands would, as a matter of course, open the Crown lands to settlement. At present most of the Crown lands in the Auckland province are held back from occupation on account of surrounding or adjoining native properties. The Government is disinclined to settle small blocks of country and make railways when such work would increase the value of Maori lands, County Councils are disinclined to make roads which tap native lands while the natives pay no rates. So the whole North is handicapped tremendously because we have no one at the head of affairs who realises the evils wrought by the present condition of Maori land ownership ; or, at any rate, we have no one who caves about remedying these evils. So far as 1 can see, MhOVi Council movement i. 5 A-W, Cost 1 " unsatisfactory, arid 14 ilk" 1 " ' ji ai ' d evjV rather in*- ■ , * the necdtsa : -• t 0 end 'L What is ■ ,5 some constitutional change under which the Crown can compel the registration of all Maori titles. It has been suggested that all Maori lands should come under the Advances to Settlers Act, a step which would not only force the individualisation of native land rights, but would supply the natives with money needful to deal with their lands. Personally, I do not think the Maori requires any compulsion to induce him to part with lands. If he did he must, where necessary, submit to the same law as the pakeha, and yield to the compulsory resumption of lands for settlement purposes. One thing is certain —the Maori is injured and the North held back under the present system, and the sooner the Government take an active interest in the Maori land question and provide a solution for the difficulty the better for all concerned.

The total number of arrivals in the colony for the month of January, 190h\ was 8058. as against 3322 for January of 1902, and the departures were 1337, as against 1581. Yesterday N. to N.W. aud S.E. to S.W. winds were experienced in the North Island. The sea was heavy off Cape Campbell, Wanganui, Greymouth; rough at Hokitika, and smooth to moderate elsewhere,