NATIVE BLOCKS ALONG RAILWAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 213, 5 September 1912, Page 9

NATIVE BLOCKS ALONG RAILWAYS.

;•; ;*: . _ . . ~- ■ — I . . jjjSXSTEaiAI. AHNOUNCEMEKT. £_YD JDK. PCttTARK"* OPINION , . <By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Tbfl Minister for Native Affairs (Hon. ,W H. Hemes), in an announcement he ■•'mad*' to-day, enunciated the principle •on behalf of the Government of purchasing native blocks along the routes of | railways under construction. The Min-t jstcr e»id ■ t^ " fc il r,vo,ild D,, ' ,is endeavour ■to sec that th<r whole of the. native land i through which th-« Napier;Gisborne line j ran strduJd to parcha.«ed—that was if j ij,e natives were -Hilling I<> sell, because it should rip rcrnombererl thorp raasjiothing in tho law to. compel the " '.natives. to sell to thn Crown, and ho miite agreed consequently that their ■■"'•jujjl.ceuld'only bo purchased if the ' jiatives worn willing to «*ll. •Thp'Hon. Dr. I'omarf, in speaking on • jjj ft subject ■oi. native land purchases, exmressed the opinion that the .purchases ■of Maori lands in tho past had been a. scandal- The (iovormncnt of the clay 'Ibid bought land at. nominal values, -Baying from about ~/(i to 10/ per acre, "S. had sold it Jit greatly p.nhanCed valors- He reckoned that if Maori • iowners desired to seJl their land, tho Government should not purchase, but I •pionld seJl the land for tho. Maoris. jpiat was what a paternal fiovernmerjt \ ongbt to do, but the supposed paternal j : Gorerninents of the past had traded ] - Bii the Maoris. Froqurntlv , the natives ' prere leaers of over £1,000,000 in the; .of bali a miH4on acres. What ; ''right had. any GnvcrmD'p.nt to stick to * : (the unearned increment? They bought Hand in -the-■■past, and .«oid it at tre- j inendcus ijdr3nce<;, and sturfv to the! ' imoiey., they should have treated the ; natives' fairly, ajid given them back a ■ Baft of the money derived from the sale. *: The. Opposition of the past had been ' accused of desiring to bleed the. Maoris, ' irut .the real men who had bled them —nvere the odd Government, he declared. -;•" ■•■ ■ ~ " I