PARENGA V. DALMATIANS AND LOYALTY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 158, 4 July 1916, Page 8

PARENGA V. DALMATIANS AND LOYALTY.

rro toe Editor.) Sir, —Mr Alderton, in his letter in your Friday night's issue, has a lot to say about Parenga. but a very little about what concsms New Zcalandcrs generally —not only dwellers in the country, but those in the cities also, viz., the loyalty or otherwise of the large number of Dalmatians in our midst. In the course of my business as a gum broken I have come in contact with a considerable number of these men, and in conversation with them both before and since war was declared, I have heard nothing to give mc cause to doubt their loyalty to the country of their adoption. They have always expressed admiration for British laws, and relief at being free from Austrian oppression. The whole trouble could be settled, as far as people complaining (chiefly parents who have sent their sons to the front) are concerned, if the Government could see their way to accept the services of, say, 500 Dalmatians of military age. If it is found unworkable to train these men in the Dominion, possibly assistance could be given to expedite their being sent to Salonika, or to some Russian port. Now, in regard to Parenga as a gumfield, for the past 40 years this field has been worked by the resident Maoris. The former owner, Mrs Yates, was chief of this particular tribe. British diggers were not encouraged to settle, as gumdigging was practically the natives' only means of livelihood, and it was recognised that they had at least a tribal right to the output of the land. This has been a famous field in its day—good pirns and conscientious grading" made the "S.Y." brand very popular; but naturally the bulk of the best gums, which are found near the surface, have long since been I sent to market. Auckland, in the early days, largely existed on the proceeds of the fi-um from this and other fields. Mr Alderton apparently has no time for gum, and would be" only too pleased to have 1,000 hard-working Dalmatians clearing his company's property of it, especially on tho basis of 10 per cent royalty and profit on stores provided. I wonder if he has given one thought to the moral danger of placing a large number of single men in an isolated district where there are Maoris of both sexes, or has he considered how it will affect the original owners of the land—the Maoris— if their sole means of support, the gum preserves, arc worked out in the way suggested.—l am, etc., THOS. CHARTER. Auckland, July I, 1916.