NATIVE LANDS QUESTION: AN ABORTIVE COMMISSION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2303, 23 September 1908, Page 4

NATIVE LANDS QUESTION: AN ABORTIVE COMMISSION.

“THE LABORS OF SISYPHUS.” (Special to “Times.”) WELLINGTON, Sopt. 22. Settlors'in the North' Island arc now beginning to realise that, after all, the labors of tho local commission on native lands are not resulting in much practical benefit. To-day I sought tho opinion' on tho subject of Mr Herries, M.P., who for years lias made a special study of native affairs. Mr Horries went into tho matter with his usual thoroughness and his remarks, which are interesting, will no doubt bo widely road. “It scenis to me,” ho said, “thut tho whole work of tho commission is absolute waste of timo and money. Wo are voting this year three thousand pounds for tho expenses of tho commission, and that, apparently, is only a preliminary. Without in any way derogating from the painstaking andi earnest work of tho commission, anyone iutimato with native affairs would know that all tho information with regard to the blocks available, their area, etc., could have been obtained by a dork in the Native Land Office, supplemented by reports from crown land rangers. With regard to the opinion expressed by tho commission in reference to the use the various blocks are to be put to, the labors of the commission may be compared to tlie labors of Sisyphus. They metaphorically roll the stone of their opinions with great labor to tho top of the hill, and then bump up against legislative enactments and the Native Department, and down goes tho stone to the bottom, where it startod from. As well as what, in my opinion, it is a waste of money, look at the constitution of the Commission. The Chief Justice of the Colony is taken away from that work in which liis high attainments would materially assist the Dominion; the principles of constitutional law are broken by giving extra payment to one of His Majestry’sjudges; the Disqualification Act is broken by giving extra monetary allowances to two members of Parliament, one a member of the commission, and the other retained to look after the interests of tho native race and the transaction had to be specially validated.- I am not at all questioning the ability of the gentlemen I refer to, nor questioning the thoroughness with which they nave done their work, nor 1 the whole souled earnestness which characterises their reports, —much though one may differ with some of the opinions they express,—but Ido ask, is the Dominion getting value for the monoy spent, and the withdrawal of the commission from these proper spheres of business? What is in effect the substance of their report after eighteen months .of travelling round the North Island ? They report on 3,135,180 acres of land and find that of t-hat acreage only 15,970 acres have been alrealty leased, or are under negotiation; 1,295,208 acres are recommended for Maori and general settlement; 500,305 acres are vested in Boards and Trustees under previous legislation, and 423,582 acres are papatupu land not olothed with a title, land cannot be dealt with. Tho fact that 915,970 acres have been leased to Europeans under previous legislation, and that land is being leased under the provisions of clause 16 of tlie Act of 1905, which clause was inserted in that Act by the Native Affairs committee and not by the Minister, and fully protects the interests of the natives, shows conclusively that the Native Land question could be settled without the intervention of the commission. With regard to the land recommonded for settlement, 643,574 .acres are recommended for Maori settlement only, under the provisions of clauses introduced into last year’s Act, not by the Government, but by Mr Ngata, and which met with goneral approval. 177,854 acres are to be incorporated with a view to Maoris farming the blocks under the provisions of section 23 of the Maori Washing-up Bill of 1906, leaving only 473,839 acres for settlement by Europeans, of which only 64,192 acres is recommended for sale. Thus, after eighteen months hard labor, less than a quarter of a million acres out of over three million acres, is recommended for settlement by Europeans. I would guarantee that if tho Lind were not tied up, that amount of land and more would have been settled by mutual agreement between tho Maoris and pakelias, under tho provisions of clause 16 above mentioned, without the costly commission travelling round the country, and it must be remembered that this report covers the whole, of the available Maori land in the colony that is likely to come in the market, except the rugged Urewera Country. This 473,839 acres of land thus recommended, becomes subject to last year’s Act, when the Governor issues an Ortler-in-Coun-cil proclaiming it. Then the Maori Liiul Board has to subdivide it into two halves, one half to be leased, the other to bo sold, and a lot of costly mechanical work, such as surveying and reading, has to bo undertaken before the land is available for settlement, and when one knows the deliberate way in which the Native Department moves, one can- anticipate that it will be some considerable time before a European settler puts his foot on this 473,839 acres. Then again tho commissioners 5 point out wliat was pointed out time and again by those who know anything about native matters, on tho second and third reading of last year’s Act, that the Act is utterly unworkable, and it is understood that legislation will be brought down this session to make it workable. However, .this is the usual condition of Maori legislation, and makes those who have an 1 earnest desire both to benefit the Maori, and open up the land for Europeans, despair of anything beneficial being done to cither race, unless an absolutely radical change is made both in legislation and in' the administration of native affairs. I