WAIAPU NATIVE LANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2512, 27 May 1909, Page 4

WAIAPU NATIVE LANDS.

[To The Editok.] Sir,—l was very pleased to see Mr. Biddle’s out-spoken letter on the. above subject iu a recent issue of your paper. From what knowledge 1 have obtained of the question ’ during my periodical visits to the Coast during the last nine years. I fell sure that lie has not in the least overstated the injustice which is being done to European settlers by the present policy, or over-estimated the feeling with which pakeha residents regard the Native Land Commission. I may say that, almost without exception, the' opinion prevails upon the Coast that the Native land policy Ls quite unsatisfactory, and requires a speedy reform. Unoccupied areas are lying idle, while settlors, voumx or old, cannot obtain land (locally, at least), and hundreds of Europeans m the towns and cities of the Dominion are burdened with oppressive rents, or are homeless. A vigorous system of land settlement is a cryinsi want, and the present state of affairs = is (to' my mind at least) a great, reproach to the powers that ben’hen will the general public of the Dominion realise the importance of this \ r most pressing question?—l am, etc., / J. G. CuX.