The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY NOVEMBER 29, 1897. THE NATIVE TROUBLE IN TARANAKI.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 277, 29 November 1897, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY NOVEMBER 29, 1897. THE NATIVE TROUBLE IN TARANAKI.

For tlie oause that lades asslstanoe, For tho Trranj that needs resistance, ?or the fataro la tha distano., Aid th. (.sod that ire can do.

The revival of the ploughing mania among the Maoris in Taranaki, if not so alarming as it .vas in 1881, when the Hon. John Bryce considered the disturbance sufficiently formidable to assemble an army of 1500 troops for the capture of the malcontents, is yet extensive and persistent enough to ex- , cite public attention. The idea of ploughing land as an assertion of their title Avas suggested to the natives by a European lawyer they consulted. Assuming- that they have a grievance, it is a perfectly legitimate way of attracting attention to it, and the wholesale consignment of natives to gac_. has already had the effect of raising in the Southern press the question whether the large reserves that Avere set aside for the Maoris under the terms upon which the dispute over the confiscated lands on the West Coast was finally settled are being properly administered. In defence of the action taken by the natives three allegations are put forward—-(1) That un excessive charge is made ■ for collecting the rents. (2) That the distribution of the rents is unduly delayed. (3) That detailed accounts are not rendered. (4) That in some cases rentals have been improperly reduced. These various charges are made'the subject of an exhaustive and instructive'article in the Taranaki 'Herald' of the 11th ultimo. Our contemporary shows, after a thorough inquiry, that the natives have really no substantial grievance. The commission charged by the Public Trustee for the Avhole work of collecting and distributing the rents, including all clerical labour in preparing the half-yearly accounts in duplicate, is 74 per cent., and when it is considered that the lands leased in these West Coast Settlement Reserves comprise an area of several hundreds of square miles, that the rents are distrilnhed proportionately on an acreage basis among some thousands of natives, and that the accounts rendered for each block show the names of all the natives interested in that block, and the proportionate part of each half-year's rent to .vhich each native is entitled, the charge of 7i per cent, must in. all reason be considered exceedingly moderate. The other deductions complained of by the . natives are for surveying, fencing, roading, and rates. Full statements, .of ..account are sent to the chiefs of the hapus every half-year and duplicates

are kept at the office of the Public Trustee's agent for native reserves at New Plymouth, for the inspection of all who may be interested in them; it is therefore distinctly untrue that , detailed accounts are. not rendered. ; Prior, to 1892 many thousands of acres of these West Coast Settlement Reserves Avere lying idle and unproductive of reA-erme, and in order that they might be rendered, available for occupation by Euroi_eans these blocks had to be subdivided by survey. and roads made through them. In many cases such roads had to be opened through dense bush. All this preliminary work necessarily involved a large outlay of money and it is this expenditure AA'hich has now to be refunded by instalments out of tha rentals produced by leasing this land. Such deductions are of a temporary character, and will finally be extinguished altogether when the orig-inal outlay has been repaid. But so Targe has been the increase of revenue since throAving , open all these additional blocks for settlement, that despite these temporary deductions a much larger amount is annually distributed among the native beneficiaries than formerly. The difficulty, however, is to make this clear to the minds of the natives, Avho are deeply imbued with the fanaticism of their prophet Te Whiti, AA-ho in the words of the Taranaki 'Herald,' 'is never tired of prophesying that the Avhole land will come back into his possession.' The natives consequently profess to regard these charges and deductions as utterly unjustifiable, and object with equal persistency to the payment of the ordinary rates charged by Local Bodies, although the roads have to be maintained, and are as much used by the natives themselves as by Europeans. With regard to the complaint of rents having in some cases been improperly reduced, there appears from the statement made in the Taranaki 'Herald' to be no evidence whatever in support of this charge. Prior to the passing of The West Coast Settlement lleserves Act, of 1892, intense dissatisfaction prevailed among the lessees at the very unsatisfactory nature of their tenure. In many cases tho precise areas and boundaries of the leaseholds Avere unknoAvn, and the' plans on the leases themselves were misletfdmg. In some cases the rents Avere alleged to be excessive, Avhile on the other hand tlie natives complained that many of the lessees Avere not paying a fair rent for the land they occupied. In order therefore to remove all anomalies of tenure, and to provide a means Avhereby old leases could be surrendered and new ones issued after a proper sujwey and revaluation for a new ground rent had been made, Parliament passed The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act of lfciUS.Avhich repealed all existing statutes dealing .vith these reserves and provided tlie most complete and practical machinery for carrying out the necessary reforms. . The task of giving., effect to this measure was no light one, but the j Public Trustee applied himself assidu- ] ously to it. The interests of each individual native in the various blocks Avere ascertained, and regulations had to be framed to meet every possible contingency, and provide a practical method of meeting such difficulties as were likely to arise between natives and Europeans Avhen the surreni der of old leases and the fixing the terms of the neAV leases should come to be considered. In the Avhole course of the subsequent proceedings the natives themselves Avere duly apprised of every step proposed to be taken, and Avere given every opportunity by regularly ai_poiiited and advertised meetings, of considering and approving or disapproving of everything done. These meeting were advertised in both English and Maori, and all the natives interested in each lease Avere requested to attend, and minutes of all such proceedings Avere officially recorded in both languages. This Avork occupied a. long time and involved an immense amount of labour and research, but the result .vas that not only Avere all ascertained grievances removed, but leases Avhieh had. formerly been a source of constant discord Avere placed on a proper fot.ting, and many thousands of acres of-what had formedly been AA'aste land and. entirely unproductive, Avere surveyeld, roaded, leased and brought into cultivation to the permanent benefit of the natives themselves and the colony at large. . ;