NATIVE GRIEVANCES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22429, 16 June 1938, Page 10

NATIVE GRIEVANCES

PRIME MINISTER’S HELP SOUGHT

BETTER ACCOMMODATION AT RATANA PA

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.)

WANGANUI, June 15,

Addressing the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) at the Ratana settlement to-day, Mr T. W. Ratana said that matters of importance he* wished to bring before Mr Savage were Maori land grievances and the need for ' enforcing the Treaty of Waitangi. He said that a sort of pact had been made with Mr H. Holland, when he was Leader of the Opposition, that in the event of Labour ever getting the Treasury benches it would do its best for the Maori people. A commission had been set up and had gone into the land grievance question,- and the decision of the commission was awaited with interest. Mr Ratana drew attention to the smallness of the assembly hall for such a large gathering. Speaking for 40,000 followers of the Ratana movement, he asked the Prime Minister to set a time to come to the pa to discuss the improvement of the accommodation. “Your land grievances will be put right as rapidly as it is humanly possible,” said Mr Savage in reply. “You must realise that even governments are limited in what they can do in a certain time. We cannot do everything at once or as fast as we would like. We have inherited the sins of generations of governments that have passed away. I want you to regard me as a friend of the native race, to remember that I will always be glad to do what is humanly possible for you. I want Mr Ratana, sen., to know that I.i have not forgotten his mission to my room in Wellington, and I would have him know that I am a man of my word and that I will live up to every promise I have made.” Mr Savage was greeted with prolonged applause.