UNWISE TO MAKE LAW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 32, 7 February 1934, Page 9

UNWISE TO MAKE LAW.

PROVISIONS OF TREATY. MAORI CHIEFS ADVISED. (By Telegraph.—Special Reporter.) WAITANGI, this day. The unwisdom of placing the Treaty of Waitangi on the Statue Book of New Zealand was emphasised during the oflieial conference at Ti Point yesterday between the Prime Minister, the members of his Ministry, and representatives of the native chiefs. It had been suggested by' Mr. E. T. Tirikatene, M.P. for Southern Maori, that the treaty should be incorporated in State law, but the Rt. Hon. J. G. Spates replied: "Don't place the treaty on the Statute Book. A treaty such as that is more sacred, more powerful, and more binding than any piece of legislation. It leaves more for botli pakeha and Maori to do in living up to the treaty."

The implications of proposals to make clause three of the treaty a law were traversed by Sir Apirana Ngata, who explained that the Maori would be placed on the same footing as the European, which meant that the Maori would pay full rates for every acre of land, without exemption. Did Mr. Tirikatene support that? Even after nearly 100 years of civilisation the Maori race was not in a position to ''swallow" in toto. clause three of the Treaty of Waitangi.