MAORI AND PAKEHA

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20115, 1 July 1914, Page 3

MAORI AND PAKEHA

---(To the Editor.) Sir, —Yoxir leading article, headed Maori and Pakeha, .in your issue of 17th inst., is of peculiar interest to your many readers living in the Ohutu Block, as tending to sliow what w« ma J oxpeet if Sir Joseph Ward is returned to power next election, and with your

permission I would like to put some of our difficulties before your town ireadors. Some years ago the late Government decided to ©pen for settlement the Ohutu Block, consisting of some 88,000 acres of Native land, and situated immediately behind Wanganui. At this time, as your readers may remember, the .Native Department was presided over by Sir James Carroll, who consistently adhered to the policy of taihoa in everything; he Inid his hand to, and •whose blighting; influence is felt vherev£r the interests of Maori and Pakeha. touch. About 1904 the Government put the Block on the market by inviting applications for selection, under such impracticable conditions that not a solitary .application was received. Some time in January, 1905. the Block was again put on the market under •amended conditions, which, however, were still so objectionable that only two sections were applied for, with the result that the Government was compelled to re-construct the conditions of lease, by removing some of the more objectionable regulations, and making specious promises of road ing, etc., which had the effect of inducing many landseekers to take up sections. In Janu-.i'-r. 1907, xbo ivsil ■sef-tlcment of the ]*lo(k common ceil. At this rime a, great (ii^jii.iv of energy T.va.s manifc-ie'l in ro:!i!it;_;. but as soon a.- the so< "i'liis worn taken up. with no iieer! <">f f : her <!•->-

ce^'?.'(..iir u're■ loatiinti nraetieiu. . <:<~l^>A, i'ud til- nnforUinato pettier^ ;-.;anci to their nttor dismay that they were to !i3 ioi't to sink or swim in a- trackless country covered with heavy, lush. Ft. is impossible for people living in town and enjoying the conveniences of town life to understand the hopeless outlook of settler?, placed in the position of the Ohnfii settlers. Here was land covered with heavy bush lying in the same state of nature as it was a thousand years nzo. and for all the Maori owners cared mijrbt remain another thousand years in the same unproductive state, for tbe Maori loves not work,, but prefers to sit in his motor car and drawrent from his more industrioi]^ Pakeha brother. After all the tinkering aM re-inoclellinT of conditions by the high priest of Taiboa. the settler sonn discovered that what he was led to believe was a valuable tenure, when wut to the tesf-. of financing for husbfelling. gassing and fencine. the land was nothing more than ta hollow sham. Neither Govern,men+. nor private money is available in sufficient amounts or on sufficiently equitable terms to be of any .practical use for the purpose of converting bush land into profitable farms. To understand some of the ■blighting conditions under which we are ivm-kmtr. your readers have'only to read the evidence given before the Native Affairs Committee in 1911. You town people talk a lot about your harbour: but what use will your harbour .be without produce to load your ships, ami where aro you going to get produce from if we cannot develop the interior, and to whom are you going to sell farm requisites if you sit down in your ignorance and let Auckland and Wellington merchants supply what oudvt to be Wanganui's own market? If the people of Wanganui had <nnv conception of tho injury the whole district is suffering through "the unsatisfactory nature of our tenure, they would certainly assist us to obtain the freehold. Even Mr. J. T. Hogan, although a, pronounced leaseholders, recognised the evils of t"« leasehold as applied to the.Ohutu, and had the honesty to say that he preferred <a Pakeha to a Maori landlord, and if yon town ipeople wish to help us to obtain the freehold .you will send Mr. Hogan to Parliament, instead of Mr. Veitch, whose knowledge of the land question as based entirely on theory, an.i as far as we are concerned Wanganui might as well be unrepresented in Parliament. T am, etc., OHUTU.