A MAORI WELCOME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 5

A MAORI WELCOME.

FOR THE PRIME MINISTER.

COLLEAGUES IN AUCKLAND. With the object of shaping, the Government's* programme for the first session of tlie new Parliament, which is expected to open in February, the Prime Minister, the Hon. M. J. Savage, will leave Auckland on January 5 for Wellington. He will then probably take up his residence more or less permanently in the capital.

On the afternoon of January 5, Mr. Savage will be accorded a Maori welcome at Orakei. He will attend the gathering in his capacity of Native Minister, and it is expected that representatives of the principal tribes in New Zealand will be present. It is understood that Mr. Savage will be accompanied by members of the Cabinet, other members of Parliament and officers of the Labour party in Auckland. The partv will number about CO, and will include Mr. E. T. Tirikatene, M.P. for Southern Maori, and Mr. Tokouru Ratana, M.P. for Western Maori. The welcome will be true to Maori custom, and the host and principal sx)eaker will be Mr. Nia Hira.

Mr. Savage attended to official business this morning, and in the afternoon atte*nded the second day of the trotting meeting at Alexandra Park. He was accompanied by the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Hon. W. E. Parry.

Mr. Savage intimated this morning that when Cabinet met on January 8 it was probable that several days would bo spent in a full discussion of the problems which demanded immediate attention. Legislative proposals for their solution would be framed and placed in the hands of the Law Draftsman. Visit to Prisons. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, the Hon. H. G. R. S'ason, like other Ministers of the Labour Government, has had little rest over the holiday period, during which time he has been devoting a great deal of attention to routine matters connected with his office. Just prior to Christmas he visited the Wanganui, Waikuni, Hautu and Waikeria prisons, and early in the new year he proposes to pay visits to other prisons in the "The conditions in the prisons and the nature of the. work provided seemed to be admirably adapted to their essential purpose, which is to rehabilitate the pn'soners by sustaining their self respect, inculcating regular habits, and providing them with work of a sort which they might expect to find available to them upon their release," said Mr. Mason this morning. The Minister added that he would leave Auckland for Wellington early in the New Year.

The Hon. R. Seraple, Minister of Public Works, came from Wellington to Frankton with Mrs. Semple by the Limited this morning.

Mr. C. H. Burnett. M.P. for Tauranga, was a passenger from the South by train this morning.