The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1910. NATIVE LANDS AND RATES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 165, 14 July 1910, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, JULY 14, 1910. NATIVE LANDS AND RATES.

Vor the cause that lochs assistance. 'For ttie wrong that needs Por the future -in the 'And the good that we coo dtt.

Tlie conference of King Country local bodies which has been sitting at Taumarunui this -week has done good service in the public interest by drawing attention to the fact that native lands are-still exempt from ordinary local taxa. tion. We may say at once that we are in full sympathy with the reeolution carried unanimously by the conference to the effect that the time has come ■to bring Maori lands within the scope of the country's fiscal system in regard to local rates. The question has been frequently discussed before, and we are glad to learn that, as Mr. W. T. Jennings, M.P., told the conference, Government is now preparing bills to deal with the matter during the present session. It is true that some time ago the Native Minister stated that the natives at least in the King Country were quite willing to -have their lande placed on the same footing as European lands in regard to rating. But nothing has come of Mr. Carroll's pronouncement; and while we can understand and appreciate the Native Minister's anxiety to secure j nothing less than justice for the Maoris, we agree with the view expressed by some of the speakers at the conference ■that it ought to be possible to adjust the burdens of local taxation in such a way as to protect the interests of European settlers without inflicting any sort of injustice upon the natives. The facts are co obvious and shouTd appeal so strongly to our administrators, that we hope the remedial measures to which we have referred will not be long delayed. It seems' to us that no fair-minded person can contemplate the present position of aflaiia in regard to the rating of native lands with any sort of satisfaction. The difficulties that 'the settlers in our backblock districts have to face are in any case a 'heavy burden upon them, and the lack of decent xoade and other means of communication is sufficiently notorious. As matters now stand, the European settlers are rated and taxed to provide roads for their districts, and the natives, who use the roads and get as much wear and tear out of them, as the Europeans, pay nothing toward their construction or maintenance. In some districts the case is even worse, for before the Crown land in the King Country can be brought into direct communication with the outside world, it is necessary to run roads right through the native lands, which form a barrier round the heart of the Rohc Potae. In such cases, not only have the natives the full benefit of the roads made at the expense of the settlers and the white population generally, but the Maori lands are immensely enhanced in value by the provision of those roads, toward which (the native owners have paid not a penny. This seems to us a peculiarly indefensible form of "unearned increment," and we have never heard any sound argument urged in its justification. We admit that there are serious practical difficulties in the way of rating native lands, the titles to which ihave not yet been individualised. But where the ownership has been legally vested in any given person, the process is quite simple, and, in our opinion, the, Native Minister should be prepared to give his consent'—which the law, as it now stands, requires—fct> enable such lands to be rated on tie came footing as European holdings. The interests of the Maoris in thoir land, must under all circumstances be protected, but it ap-1 pears to us that it should be possible to do this effectually without inflicting severe and unjust hardships upon, the whole body of white settlers in the North Island by ■exempting native land's from rates.