SETTLING MAORI LANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 254, 24 October 1905, Page 3

SETTLING MAORI LANDS.

(By Telegraph.-ParUamentaTy Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day. The Maori Land for Settlement Bill came up for its third reading last night! Mr Herries regretted that the bill was not as comprehensive as the scheme outmil, *£? Premier durin S the recess. 01 the bill as originally introduced hardly a shred remained, and that shred had been so confined as to be almost ■nnocuous. The Premier had not kept .us promise to sweep away the Native Land Councils and begin afresh, and the Councils which stank hi the nostrils ot all the natives in the colony, were still retained as Boards. There was no mention of exchange in the bill, though this had been suggested by the Premier. He hoped next year to see a more comprehensive measure to replace the existing patchwork legislation. The best parts of the measure as it now stood were foreign to th e original idea, and he earnestly hoped the Native Minister would take counsel with others who knew as much of the matter as himself, and endeavour to improve the state of affairs. They should endeavour to bring the Maoris and Europeans together, but the present policy was in the direction of keeping them apart. Mr\A. L. D. F.aser regretted that Mr Hemes had made the bill a party question. The native question was a colonial matter, and should not be approached from a party standpoint. He strongly supported the measure, which he safd would raise the standard of the native race. Past legislation had been defective, and the Councils had proved abortive. The present bill, however, offered facilities for the releasing of lands, and would result greatly to the benefit of the colony.

Mr Moss suggested that the time had arrived for taking the natives out of their swaddling clothes. The Southern members who talked about the North robbing the Maoris should, as a punishment for their libel, be sent Nv.nh for three months and compelled to make their living by robbing the native;., nd i very poor living they would mke. The present b '.} wou'd be useless to nrescnt-day natives, thousrh it might two nr three generations ahead. He asked for more v'gour and less cobwebs in the administration of the Native Department.

Mr Hogg declared that the bill we? one of the worst he had even seen. It perpetrated a gross wrong on the natives, in robbing them of the remnant of their lands and also perpetrated a wrong on the Europeans. The process of colonisation could be carried out without anything like the injustice of the bill.

Mr Jennings was of opinion tiiat the bill was a good one, and formed a good advance on previous legislation. Mr Harding congratulated the Housp on the bill as it came from Committee, hough he could not congratulate the Government on the bill as originally inrvoduced. He paid a compliment to Mr Houston, chairman of the Native Affairs Committee, saying that it wa<= very largely through that member's tact and ability that the bill was got through the Nntive Affais Committee.

Mr Parata "congratulated the bi 1 '" although it did not go far enough. H" regretted the limit of 25 acres for . ach member of a naiivi •'-- family and hotr>ri that the Native -Minister would do hi-: duty to his race by increasing the area within a year or two. The natives would feel the lvnr-fit of the bill but it was a pity that they were not allowed to exchange lands.

The Native Minister in rep'y said that if any one dcwrved crecit for os sisting the bill through all it 3 stages it was Mr Houston, whose absence wa= regretted by the House. He had failed to discover. anything- in the arguments against the bill. Opposition members claimed that the bill went before the Native Affairs Committee in one way and came out in another. He denied this. The policy was unaltered and the only amendment made was extending the provisions for resumption and this had been proposed by the Government. Improvements had been made, but they were in the nature of simplifying -h>. machinery. The principal oper tivclause had been confined to and the East Coast, and he believed that other districts would be crying ou! for that clause before long. The bill was read a third time on the voices.