Maoris Do Not Want To Shift

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31045, 28 April 1966, Page 18

Maoris Do Not Want To Shift

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, April 27. The 50 “stay-put” residents of the diladapted Whakaaratamaiti Pa, a forlorn backwater near Putaruru, will hold a public meeting on Sunday to discuss the Maori Affairs Department’s plans to shift them into Putaruru or Rotorua.

The department aims to give the residents a better chance in life but indications are that the residents are quite happy to remain where they are. , “I don’t intend going nowhere . , .” “I came from Rotorua. I’m not going back to that dump . . “They’ll have to bring a bulldozer to shove us out . . .” This is what the Whakaaratamaiti Pa dwellers think of the efforts being made on their behalf. The settlement has no power, no sewerage and no water supply. It has been

condemned by a Putaruru doctor as “fit only for the match” and a “stigma for the young people of the community to carry’.” But it has been a traditional Maori home for a long time and many of the residents are loath to part with the land which belongs to them. “I don’t want to see my people shifted to town,” says Mrs L. Dick, one of the leaders of the community. “1 am afraid they will finish up with no land on the marae and no houses in Rotorua. I’ve got two acres here and I’d be lucky to get a quarter-acre in town.”