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the Maori people alike of the benefits which, would accrue both to the nation and to the Maori race from a planned programme of development in land, industry, and economic advancement. In recent years a fuller recognition has been given to parity in citizenship by the settlement of various long-outstanding claims, by the adoption of a policy which aims at the general advancement in life of the Maori people as an integral part of the social and economic structure of New Zealand, and by the association of the human aspect of Maori problems concerned with the activities of State Departments. It can be said that the policy of advancing the interests of the Maori race has been more sympathetically broadened to give assistance to the people not only in land-develop-ment, but also in the physical, economic, educational, social, and moral well-being. This is being done in co-operation with the Maori people as a whole. The policy has also helped to revive, preserve, and maintain the arts and crafts of the Maori, to apply and maintain the highest efficiency and sense of civic responsibility in their life and undertakings, and to maintain self-reliance, thrift, and pride of race. There are ninety-nine Maori land-development schemes in the North Island and three in the South Island, and these cover an area of 624,958 acres in various stages of development and production. The gross expenditure of public moneys for the year on all agricultural and pastoral schemes controlled by the Department was £775,733 (compared with £795,565 for the previous year), while the Department's proportion of the receipts from farming operations amounted to £663,386 (compared with £707,920 for the previous year). £71,892 was paid to Consolidated Fund in interest charges. Cash collections under each heading compared with the previous year were — Butterfat: a decrease of 3 per cent.; whilst the Department's share of wool proceeds showed a drop from £120,947 to £82.742, but this is accounted for by the cancellation of some of the late-season sales, with the result that the proceeds are not included in the accounts for 1946-47. Sales of live-stock also dropped in value by 5 per cent., but the returns from miscellaneous items (including crops) grouped under the heading " Sundries " rose by 45 per cent. The actual revenue collected was : butterfat (representing the Department's proportion, which averaged 44 per cent.), £178,971, compared with £185,389 for the previous season ; live-stock sales, £354,043, in comparison with £375,559 for the previous year ; and sundry receipts (crops and farm produce), £47,630, the previous year's receipts being £32,657. On the schemes the volume of dairy-produce dropped from 4,920,435 lb. to 4,861,773 lb., while the wool-clip of 6,349 bales showed an increase of 330 bales over the 1945-46 season. A total of 833 men were employed on the general development blocks and stations. This figure excludes the farm-managers and foremen directly engaged by the Public Service Commission and also excludes the 1,889 farmers settled on their own holdings. A further 238 men were employed on Maori housing construction. Grants from the Consolidated Fund to the Land for Settlements Account amounted to £140,000 for the year. This money is utilized in developing marginal land owned and occupied by local or resident Maoris which otherwise could not be economically brought to a stage where it could be settled with any hope of success. The twenty-two. stations financed by the Maori Land Boards and the Native Trustee produced a total of 2,400 bales of wool, as compared with 1,966 for the preceding year. On the Bast Coast Native Trust stations, 4,558 bales were shorn, as against the previous year's clip of 3,331 bales. The live-stock returns at 31st March, 1947, again show an increase in the number of dairy cows carried and a further increase in the number of breeding-ewes.

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