The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1909. MAORI LAND BOARDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2530, 17 June 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1909. MAORI LAND BOARDS.

The conditions under Which Maori boards and councils are condescending to permit Europeans to occupy and improve Maori lands are now being widely published in the New Zealand “Gazette.” It would he bad enough for the Dominion if the hulk, of Maori lands wore to be worked by-European tenants, even under a generous and liberal form of lease, because this system, besides building up, and 'keeping in idleness, a Maori aristocracy, would, of a surety, mean that several million acres would be robbed of their fertility, and at the best only partially improved. It is not in the nature of man to labor for the benefit of others, pud under all lease. ' systems the improvements made never exceed those laid down in the agreom(sPt'- _ I(XCOpt at the beginning of the lease, when it- is necessary to improve in order to obtain any form of agricultural or pastoral produce. Iu considering this subject the “New Zealand Herald’” ask? the pertinent question: “Have any officers of the Crown, j any politician responsible for the working of our lands, studied the lease conditions under which Maori land boards expect European tenants to"work?” It is scarcely likely (adds our contemporary) that they have done so, or surely some protest would have been made, some improvement attempted. There have been strenuous efforts made by some of our public men to protect the Maori landowner from the supposed ma- “ cliinations of the pakehaj^^—’ IWill any he made to protect the, European fi»^ m tlio selfish Conditions which Vue Maori land, boards arc seeking to impose upon their pakelia tenants?’• In the New Zealand. zette of May 20 there appears at length full particulars under which tliC AVaiariki District Maori Land Board are], offering sections for lease at Rotorua. The sections are mostly of a small size, the bulk of them being from foUi' to five acres hi extent-, and the rents •demanded for this class of Section range from S los to £1 per acre. The large* • sections, running from fifty acres/to eight hundred acres, arc, 1 (of -Course >• much lower in value, and, it, goes without saying, are of much.,.inferior quality. The soil is described as pumice, and there are few people who do not knew what ltotorna'pumice soil is like, yet it will be seen that the Maori Land Board is valuing some of these sections at as high as £2O per acre, or, at any rate, tlie rental is based on five per cent, interest on this sum. . There are no roads made to the blocks except the main East Coast oroad, built and maintained entirely at tlio expense of Europeans. 'The only claim to value, which. tliC-land has depends upon the European 'town of Rotorua, and the. facilities : it gives for marketing produce or making suburban residence possible. Tt is not so much, however, the-esti- . miltjb’n of capital value, or tho propos- • 'e ! d ’rentals, which need be discussed ; : it is tlie .iniquitous terms of the lease • ’'under which the Maori Land Board 'demands all and gives nothing. . The 'term of the lease I 'is for 25 years, with right of renewal for a further term of 25 years. The lessee must bring into cultivation, within one year : from the .date of his-- lease, not 'less.-than, onc- . twentieth of the land; within years •■j ,Uot/2lcss...

years not loss than one-fifth; and shall within six years, in addition to the cultivation of the land, put substantial improvements, of a 'permanent character,'to the value of £1 for every acre of first-class land and 10s for every aero of second-class land. Now those at the first .sight do not appear to be very extravagant demands, because only the useless class of speculator would seek to- hold land without improving it, and to improve this class of land, so as to make it in any way productive, would cost, considerably more than is specified. It is in clause 5, which deals with compensation for improvements, where tho cloven hoof shows. This clause states that:

“Compensation for improvements shall ho payable by the native owners at the expiration of the full term of fifty years; the amount to he assessed by arbitration, but not to exceed (a) in the case of sections of 75 acres and under, the sum of £150; (b) in the case of other sections, £2 per acre, but in no case shall the. compensation payable by the native owners on any one section exceed the sum of £1000.”

Clause. 6 is another instance of the Maori Land Board’s Semitic proclivities. It states that if at the expiration of 50 years tho Maori owners are unable to pay the small sums set for compensation in clause 5, the section, loaded with the amount of improvements, shall be put up to auction for a further term of 25 years for the best rent obtainable, and without compensation for improvements. There are several closely-printed pages of clauses all bearing much in the same direction, and that is the exclusive benefit of the Maori, without any regard whatever for the benefit of the European tenant or tho practical development of the land, but it is, of course, impossible to analyse them in detail. The compensation clause offers quito enough food for discussion. AA r o will take the case of the medium sections, which run about 50 acres, and are leased at- £4 per year. The lessee of such a block, according to tho terms of his lease, must fence his section, and cultivate the greater portion of ijt; must within six years put on permanent improvements to the value of £1 per acre, and must keep all improvements in good repair for tho term of his lease. To fence the. section and to put it in grass, and to keep it in grass, would cost at least £6 ■per acre. After spending this sum, and paying rates on the improvements for 50 years* which go towards making roads, and thus add further to the value of the land, tho industrious tenant is entitled to compensation to an amount not to exceed £l5O, or less than half the value of tho simplest improvement! But how is a tenant to make use of such a section without putting up a dwelling or other buildings? If he does so. he would, after paying the Maori owners rent for 50 years, making roads to increase the. value of their land, relieving them from all rates and taxes, and bringing their land into cultivation, make them a present of at least £4OO worth of improvements. Now, will even a sentimentalist like Sir Robert Stout argue that in these democratic days such a form of lease Ls equitable, or that, the Maori has any right to sit down in idleness and gather into his lap the proceeds of palccha industry?