NATIVE INQUIRY.

Auckland Star, Issue 154, 2 July 1934, Page 8

NATIVE INQUIRY.

MINISTER AS WITNESS. LAND DEVELOPMENT PLANS. TO MEET UNUSUAL CONDITIONS (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Minister of Native Affairs, the Hon. Sir Apirana Ngata, appeared before the Royal Commission to-day as a witness. Mr. G. T. Finlay, counsel for the native racc, stated that the Minister s evidence was prepared in the form of a series of statements. Sir Apirana was sworn, and. he proceeded to read the statements. In his first he dealt with the appropriations for staffing in the years 1027-28 to 1033-34: In the first of these years the appropriation for the Native ]>epartment from the Consolidated Fund for salaries was £25,610, and the number on the salary, list was then 83, of whom eleven were The following year the staff showed an increase to 03, an increase made up wholly of non-permanents. Salaries cost £27,814. In the year 1929-30, the year in which he was responsible for the estimates, provision was made for ar. increase in the staff to 109, the increase comprising seven additional pcrmanents and nine non-permanents. The salaries vote increased to £30,502. In May, 1929, Sir Joseph Ward called for a drastic overhaul of all Departmental votes, and (lie Native Department estimates were accordingly reduced by £2542, but the staffing items, which were deemed the minimum, were not touched. In the year 1030-31 the staff showed an increase to 123, and the vote for salaries went up to £35,701, but of this £3510 was claimed from the Native Land Settlement Account. A Treasury note in Slay of that period notified that the vote allocated to the Native Department, £30,000, must not be exceeded, and still later the Department was compelled to underspend items in its vote, including postponement of part of the Taranaki compensation money. The General Situation. Sir Apirana referred to the setting up of tho Cabinet economy committee, and to his being chairman, and to the general situation of growing unemployment, further complicated by tho Napier earthquake disaster. He referred also to the need for more production, and for seeking a more useful and permanent solution of the unemployment problem, through land development. In the year 1931-32, the salary portion of the vote for the Department dropped to £29,571, chiefly due to the 10 per ccnt cut, but also to the reduction in staff to 11S. This was the year of the greatest expansion of land settlement activities, both in the Lands and the Native Departments. This was also the year in which a committee of economists in their report made interesting references in connection with, the position of every land developing activity of the State. Because of conclusions arrived at as ro the position of the primary industries, the Government also set up the National Expenditure Commission, but already the Government was seized of the difficulties of those people who were called upon to pay rent and interest, and relief legislation and action were the order of the day.

Maoris' Position "Very Serious." ' In regard to the resources of the many Maori people who were dependent on rent for income, the position in many districts bee/mo very serious. The commission should realise that, more perhaps than any other section of the New Zealand community at the time, the Maori people were dependent on sustenance from land. As to spelling it, which was a source of living in other days, the financial depression definitely put that out of the question. The Minister said the head office of the Native Affairs Department was not organised at the time for the intensive development which followed in 1930-32. This development almost synchronised with the Government's decision to effect economics. Referring to his own part, ho said it would have been easier and more comfortable to take shelter behind a board, as a shock-absorber from the impact of criticism. If the present investigation would lead to a fuller understanding of the problems, then it had not been made ill vain. The Minister then dealt with the activities of the Native Department in regard to the development of land, and measures for relief of the Maori population in relation to the contemporary activities of other Departments of State, including the Unemployment Board.