MAORI LAND SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 45, 22 February 1934, Page 22

MAORI LAND SETTLEMENT.

The appropriate announcement of the lit. Hon. G. W. Forbes in respect of Maori land settlement is very opportune. For it is now very necessary that our Maori people receive every encouragement to persevere in the land settlement schemes so ably organised by Sii v Apirana Xgata and his associated staff of officers. Nothing should be done to minimise the importance of this serious forward move among the Maori people— or which might tend to discourage them in their strenuous efforts to thus uplift themselves and march forward with the times. For the era of the old raupo whare and small enclosure of potatoes and kumara has passed away. The Maori people, to be an efficient factor in our national life, must become proficient farmers in the modern sense as such. Another very important value these land settlement schemes has is the revival of the land sense in our Maori people. Until these schemes were initiated, there was a regrettable feeling of indifference \as to the future—marked also by a drift to the town. Lands were deteriorating and becoming covered with noxious weeds to the detriment of all concerned. Therefore, the work undertakea by Sir Apirana Ngata and his colleagues is one of first importance— indeed,.-the very existence of the race is., at stake. But the schemes must be courageously carried on, until in their full fruition we will have placed the Maori in a secure and happy condition on their ancestral lands. This is their due, as it is also pakelia responsibility. \ GEO. GRAHAM.