WANTED—A NATIVE LAND POLICY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2559, 21 July 1909, Page 7

WANTED— A NATIVE LAND POLICY.

(By T. E. Taylor, M. P., in “The

Citizen.”)

There are many public men and private citizens in New Zealand better qualified to deal with the Native Land problem than I am. My knowledge of tlio subject is: just about that of the ordinary citizen. I have watched the alleged Native policy of the successive. ■Governments for over thirty years. Good intentions have been abundant. Good results have been almost entirely wanting. The Maori only increases in numbers when a more thorough census gives him that seeming vitality. His condition in the industrial world is no better to-day than it was thirty years ago. Whilst his intellectual capacity and physical excellencies command universal admiration he adds nothing to the total sum of _ human knowledge of wealth. He defies the seductions of systematic industry. He, with all his fine qualities, lives at the level of the “let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow wo die” philosophy. ... ; No one questions his right to live his own life. Whatever his rights may be, and however peculiar his ideals of happiness may appear to those to whom a more strenuous life appeals, it is high time that the Maori race was compelled to discharge its obligations to this country. To-day the Maori is a barrier to progress and a burden upon the productive forces of the Dominion. This farce of the so-called Native policy which has hurt both the European and the Native population in equal degree up to date must cease. It is time the Maori was treated as a citizen from whom the country demands a similar service as is exacted from the European. The phase of the Native, question 1 desire specially to deal with in this paper is what is known as the Native Land question. During the past two -rears the Commission consisting of the Chief Justice (Sir Robert Stout) and'Mr. Ngata, M.R, has, at great expense to the country, conducted an investigation of the Native Land question. It remains to be seen whether its costly report will prove of the slightest value to the Dominion in arriving at a decision as to what obligations the Maori land owner shall he made to discharge. It seems to me that the Native policy, so called, of the past must be put aside. There can be only one Land policy in the Dominion of New. Zealand in future. It will apply equally to Maori and European. The principle underlying the land policy must be that land owners must use their lands to the advantage of the whole colony or get off them and let those people occupy them who will use them profitably. CRIMINAL STUPIDITY.

To-day the Native land policy is a -crime. If a European holds land he has to pay taxes upon it. xlo has to keep it clear of noxious weeds: He has to make it produce in the interests of the country. If the land is required for -closer settlement he has to submit to its resumption by the Crown. The Maori people hold millions of acres of good land. They pay no taxes, they nermit noxious weeds to infest it to the injury of European settlers whose holdings adjoin, they practically produce nothing to add to the coloxy’s wealth. There are many who urge that Maori land should be made to pay taxes, and that the -.ative owners should be made to clear and cultivate their lands. That is not a remedy for the evil. Already the country has been foolish enough to create. vast wealth, for the Maori race, not one pound of which justly belongs to the natives. Millions of money, for the interest upon which the industry and prosperity of the European population provides—have been borrowed and expended upon roads, bridges, and railways in the North Island and the value of the Maori lands has been enormously increased as a consequence of such public expenditure. Every farm carved by Europeans out of the forest adjacent to 'Maori lands adds to the value of such land. The North Island Main Trunk line of railway has created a fortune fog the Maori people by enhancing the value of millions of acres of native land which this great public work gives access to. The cultivated lands of the European settler pay the interest upon the money borrowed to build the line. The Maori pays no rates and taxes. The system of leasing Maori . land to European farmers is creating a Maori “landocracy.” It is as objectionable to have a Maori landed aristocracy as to have a European one. If the Maori lands are all leased' to Europeans the future increases, in the value of such leased lands caused by European industry and by the expenditure of public money will be enormous. EXPLOITED BY THE MAORI. The remainder of the Maori race, if the system of leasing their lands to European settlers is continued, will become enormously wealthy—-not by their industry, but upon the industry of European .settlers. The Maori should be prevented from exploiting the European population. I suggest that the jjominion should at once purchase the whole of the Maori lands and deal with them in the public interests as the Parliament may, from time to time, decide. That the purchase money should be invested by the Public Trustee and the interest upon its investment paid to the, Maori people. No unearned increase in value would be attached to this capita]. All future increases in values in the land thus compulsorily taken from the natives would become the property of those whose industry created the increased value, or of the State, if public expenditure further enhanced the value of the land.

Large estates owned by Europeans .are taken compulsorily by the State for closer settlement. I am proposing to nnuly the same princime to the Maori landowner, who is, as things exist to-day. a menace to the well-being of '-the Dominion. When the resumed Maori lands are available for settlement let the Maori take a lease of what land he may be prepared to cultivate or such portion as he may require for residential purposes. Upon the land he thus takes up /the should pay -the same -burden of taxbation as anv; other European settler. In , addition to* a|i; wealth his labor proeludes from cultivation of tho soil he will have his share of the income derived by the Native race, from the interest upon the capital held by the Public Trustee. Maori landlordism will he a colossal evil -in another thirty years unless a course such as I have suggested is followed. The Maori lands stand in the path of progress, and the time has; arrived when European rights should no longer bo subservient to the imaginary . rights cf the Native race. \ *

The Maori landowner -and landlord must both be abolished, and; this can b© done along the lines I have suggested without .inflicting injustice upon the Native race and to the incalculable benefit of civilisation and the material prosperity of the country. What is wanted is a political party earnest enough to save the Maori from himself and protect the European interest from the Maori dand incubus.