GREAT NATIVE MEETING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 67, 18 March 1908, Page 5

GREAT NATIVE MEETING.

- » MAORIS' PETITION TO THE KING. His Excellency the Governor (Lord Plunket), in company with. Sir Joseph Ward (Prime Minister), left at 7.40 tun. tbis morning by special train to attend the Maori gathering at Waharoa. His Excellency will return to Auckland later, and next Wednesday he will lay tha foundation stone of the- Grafton Bridge. The petition of the northern .\tao°L_ to King Edward, which is to be discussed at Waharoa, states that the laws made by the Government of New Zealand are trampling upon the covenants and contracts granted to the Maori people" by the Treaty of Waitangi, and the Constitution Act of 1852, and the Maoris, are becoming destitute owing to the Maori land laws now in force. The pre-emptive right agreed to in the Treat v that tha Crown alone was to buy Maori lands ;was abrogated (or surrendered) by Go- | vernor Fitzroy, and subsequently-farther j abrogated by the many laws of the Parliaments, and therefore it would never jbe just for the Crown to resume the said pre-emptive right without the consent lof the Maoris. After quoting in detail the legislation objected fo, the petition asks for an inquiry to ascertain "why "the j Maori land has been confiscated, and j what benefits (revenue derivable) from thermal springs owned by Maoris should be justly disbursed. It is urged "thaT the lands taken under the laws referred to should be restored to the owners, also 1 the "mana" over such lands. The income or revenue collected under. the Maori Township Act should be paid to the Maori people whose lands were taken for the townships. It is asked that various laws be amended and their administration stopped until good arrangements can be arrived at between the two races.