MAORI IDLE LANDS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3303, 23 August 1911, Page 7

MAORI IDLE LANDS.

THE STORY OF A GREAT WASTE. FIVE MILLION ACRES UNUSED. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE. (All Rights Reserved.) (Contributed.) Two outstanding facts have to ©e borne in mind in considering the Native lands question. They are: 1. That in less than six years the supply of Crown lands available for settlement will have been exhausted. (Dr Findlay, Legislative Council, July 13, 1910.) 2. That of the 7,400,000 acres owned by the Maoris, an area of something like 5,000,000 acres—nearly one-filth of the whole surface of the North Island—is lying absolutely idle and unproductive. Statement No. 2 requires some explanation. It was only arrived at after a diligent search through the latest Government reports and statistics at present available. The total area of Native land in the Dominion on March 31, 1910, was as under (vide “Statistics of the Dominion of New 'Zealand for the year 1909,” page 359): — . * Acros. Hawke’s Bay M®3,336 Taranaki Wellington 1/533,830 Nelson 41,400 Total 7,417,986 The latest official return as to the area of Native lands leased is apparent ly that contained in the table as to the occupation of land published on Page P 95 of the “Statistics” for 1900. This gives a total oi 1,906,968 acres of Native laud held under lease. A note at the f*o.t or th • table says that it is a repetition of that published in 1908, no later figures being available. Taking these figures, a sum m subtraction gives the following result: Acres. Total area of Native land 7,417,986 Area leased 1,906,963

Area in Native lands ... 5,511,018 The Maori as a Farmer.

The point now arises, What is the Maori doing with this oh million acres? The only figures that throw any real light on the question are those published in the Maori census returns collected once in every five years. The figures for this year’s census are not yet available. Those for the census of 1906, are to be found in the official census report, Appendix B, p. iii: Sheep 252,404 head Cattle 54,960 head Pigg 42,479 head Area under crop ... 40,608 s acres On a liberal estimate of one sheep to the aero and one head of cattle to ten acres, this stock could be comfortably carried on 300,000 acres of grass land. If the area under crop is added, it gives a total of 340,000 acres under effective Maori occupation. No figures are published showing the number of horses owned bv the Aluons. To allow for tne ° r razin< T of these, and for the expansion that has taken .place since 1906, it would be a liberal thing to add, say. 50 per cent, to area as above, thus making in round figures 500,000 acres in use for carrying Maori live stock and crops. The final position is, therefore, that given in statement No 2 aoove: Total Maori Lands 7,417,986 Less Area leased ...... 1,906,968 Area carrying crops and live stock 500,000

Native lands standing idle 5,011.01 S These figures are not those given by Ministers of the Crown in their references to the Native lands question. The figures in Ministerial speeches that cannot be verified by reference to the official public records have been ignored. Sir John (then Dr.) Findlay, in the Legislative Council last year, for instance, said that 3,000,000 acres of Native land were leased by the Maoris. No trace of this is to be found in any public document so far available to the public. Sir James Carroll at Invercargill on June 30 said (‘Otago Daily Times,” Jmy “On March 31 last, the area owned bv the Maoris in the North Island was 6M18,371 acres. Of this 3,916,342 acres was in profitable occupation, leaving a balance of 2,102,029 acres of unoccupied Native lands. Of this balance 869,112 acres was vested in the Public Trustee and other trustees, and 279,002 acres was incorporated for settlement.” When these figures appear in the Parliamentary papers it will be time to use them. Meanwhile, it is sufficient to note that in the absence of explanation of what Sir Janies Carroll means by “profitable occupation’’ they are utterly valuless. A Quixotic Policy One interesting fact disclosed in the Year Book for 1910, p. 713, is tliat in blie year ending on March 31, 1910, the Government spent the magnificent sun. of £31,891 in acquiring 15,558 acres', of Native land to be thrown open for public settlement. Since the inauguration of the Land for Settlement policy in 1594, about which time the purchase of estates by the Crown began, the Government, up to March 31, 1910. has (see Year Book, 1910, pp. 576-7) spent a sum of £5,407,792 in acquiring for subdivision 197 estates, with a total area of 1,238,096 acres. . , _ During the same period the Crown has spent £676,245 in acquiring 2,171,187 acres of Native land. This fact is not directly disclosed in any'official publication. The Year Book, however, shows each year the area of Native land purchased by the Crown since IS/0 and the total sum paid for it. The figures in the Year Books (p. 713) of 1910 and 1894 (p. 207) are respectively: 1870-1910 (March 31)... 5,004,551 2,072322 1870-1894 (March 31)... 5,833,664 1,996,077

Operations 1894-1910... 2,171,157 676,245 The private estates resumed were all in more or less profitable occupation, but the Native land, was lying absolutely idle. Yet for everv £1 spent in buying Native land for settlement during the last 17 years, the Government has spent £9 in acquiring private estates. If the figures had been the other way round, it stands to reason that the production of the colony would have been enormously increased. Values Piling Up. Another point to be borne in mind is that the longer the purchase of the Native lands is deferred the greater will bo the price to be paid for them. The Year Book of 1895, p. 157, states

that ihe area of Native land “in the hands of the Natives” was then between 9 and 10 million acres. It proceeds: “In 1888 the Native lands were valued at £3,000,000 sterling. The present value is probably not. so much; some land has been sold, but on the other hand some of that retained may have increased in value.” Now turn to the corresponding figures in the Year Book of 1910, p. 612. The value of the Native lands and improvements, exclusive of lessee’s interests. you are told was, on March 31, 1908, £11,413,545. the area then being about 71 million acres. Thus, although the area has decreased by about 25 per cent., the value of the Native lands increased by 1 millions sterling, or nearly 300 per cent, in 13 years. Millions for Nothing. The Maori pays practically nothing in rates and taxes, and becomes wealthy by merely squatting on the ground ana letting noxious weeds grow over some of the best land in the North Island. He need not worry about to-morrow, for the extension of railways and roads, and the solid hard work of the white settler is steadily piling up millions of pounsd in land values for him to enjoy; The public has not yet realised what the profitable occupation of the Native lands would mean to New Zealand. The 51 million acres of land on which the Maoris run their quarter of a million sheep, taken by and large, is fair average North Island country If there are p;>or blocks, there are also exception a ily fertile blocks. Room for 2,700,000 More Sheep. The North Island has an area of 28,459,520 acres, and the 51 million acres which, as shown above, are in the hands of a compartaivelv small group of Maoris, represent just about onefifth of the total. The Year Book for 1910, p. 500, shows that there are 12,193,211 sheep in the North Island. The only figures as to Maori sheep give the Native flocks as they were in 1906, when they totalled 252,000 sheep. Since that date the number of Europeanowned sheep in the North Island has increased by one-fifth, so for the purpose of making a rough comparison, we will suppose an equal increase in the Maori flocks, brineing their total up to 300,000. The position then works out that on the European four-fifths of the North Island are over 12.000,000 sheep. It follows—assuming the soil to be the same mixture of good, bad and indifferent in each fifth of the island—-that witfi average European farming there would be 3.000,000 sheep to each firth. Maori Rocks of 300,000 sheep, therefore, mean that cne-tenth of the Native land is stocked, and nine-tenths is empty. The profitable occupation of the Native lands would give an enormous impetus to the trade and commercial prosperity of the whole of the Dominion. It is far and away the most important problem that confronts New Zealand statesmanship at the present day. What Might be. The four-fifths of the North Island that is occupied by settlers has, according to the last Year Book, a total overseas trade of £21,580,226. On this basis the occupation of the remaining fifth of the island would mean an increase, pro rata, of £5,300,000 in the Dominion’s trade.- This is nearly threequarters of the whole overseas trade passing through Wellington, and it is greater than the whole of the import and export trade of Lyttelton, the principal port of one jot the most prosperous provinces of New Zealand. As the figures in tins article may be challenged by the advocates of the "taifioa” policy in Native lands, the authority for them has been given in every instance

How little concerned the Government is to provide the public with information regarding the Native lands may be gathered from the fact that in the latest volume of Government statistics, in an index of 600 entries there is not one solitary reference to Native lands. The reports of Sir James Carroll’s own Department, moreover, give no comprehensive statement of the position in any form. There are a few scrappy pavers relating to the transactions of this board and that, but of Native lands as a whole the public is told nothing whatever. Not for the Poor Man. The Native lands are nt for the poor man to settle on under the present “Liberal” Administration. Before Native land can be purchased under present conditions endless expensive legal proceedings are necessary. The wealthy speculator can afford this, hut it quite out of the question for the working settler who is looking for a holding to take in hand. What is wanted in connection with the Native land problem is to send out surveyors to mark out, the laud that the Maoris are actually using to carry stock on,- etc. All the idle land could be resumed by the Crown at a reasonable valuation, and on such a basis not to infringe the rights guaranteed to tiie Natives. The Maori claims equal rights with the European under the Treaty of Waitangi, but he has never sought, to bear the liabilities that go with those rights. If the Maoii landowner. for instance, had to pay up what he owes in arrears of rates on his land he simplv could not hold it. After 'the Crown had resumed the land it could ho cut and treated as ordinary Crown land available for settlement. The net revenue from it, however, should be paid into a trust fund for the benefit of the Maori owners, whose titles could be m the Native Land Courts at any tune during the next fifty or hundred, years without in anv way blocking the progress of New Zealand. To ascertain the title first and then open Hie land for lease or purchase afterwards is to waste years needlessly.