THE MAORI RACE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2078, 13 May 1907, Page 3

THE MAORI RACE.

HELP FOR FARMERS. Press Association. NEW PLYMOUTH, last night, Dealing with the natives and the native land question, in his speech at Omnta in favor of Mr. Dockiill’s candidature for the Taranaki seat, the Hon. Jas. Carroll said lie had been greatly impressed since coming to i'arana'ki with the need to bring the Act of 1892 abreast of the times. Repi esentations made to him by native and European deputations impressed him that there was room for adjustment of' equities which existed on both sides. He had impressed on the natives that the time had come when they should pay rates and taxes the same as Europeans, and have a voice in the affairs of loal cbodies. The Maoris would speedily be educated.in this way. He had found that the majority of young Maori minds ill Taranaki were in favor of such a reform. They were prepared and anxious to accept the responsibilities of that- nature. Regarding the desire of holders of native leases for the freehold, lie acknowledged that it was quite natural, but the Maori had an equal right'to have his side of the question presented, and say whether he wished to sell. The Government could not with equal justice take the freehold of one man and give it to another if the owner did not wisli to part with it. AVhen put to them in that light the tenants had to admit that it was only justice, and such they expect. Were the positions reversed regarding waste Maori lands,, most of these lands were removed from parts when natives wished to leave, and the. Government would he willing to soli these lands and purchase good lands for Alaori owners in localities prepared by- them. . This would do much good, because the noxious weeds nuisance, for much of which these lands are responsible, would be got rid of. The colony should make every effort to raise the Maori in the social scale, and make him a useful settler. It was not because the Maori was incapable that he was not a successful farmer, vieing with the pakolia. He was a husbandman by ancestral instinct. AVlien in a state of Maoridom the native was a thinker and a cultivator, with the interests and concerns of his family at heart. He had never been r/iven a chance. Since the war ho had passed through a longjieriod of sullenness, thraldom, and halluciatiou of mind encouraged by so-called prophets. He lias been a negative all this time and- not an active-mind-ed man, throwing his weight and onergy on the side of progress. While the colony had been spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to as sist small settlers, nothing had yet been done for the Alaori. He proposed when the Native Commission s report was available to settle the. Maoris on land set aside for them, and open the door of financial institutions to them the same as the ordinary settler. The sooner the better for all concerned. He granted that all would not be successful, but, sharing the responsibilities of State with his pakelia brother, lie mostly succeeded, and a trial should be made. He agreed that Air. Okey, the Opposition candidate, had shown such an entire lack of sympathy—a shouldering of the native out of the way—in saying he did not believe_ in the aspirations of the young Maori party, and was not in favor of lending young native Farmers money under the Advances to Settlers Act. The land was the Aiaoris’, and lie had.not been over-paid for it; hut when the young Aiaoris now showed a strong desire to get on the land (their own land) and want to raise money for stocking and improving the security (their own land) he thought that only one in a million would deny him that privilege . -