Maoris Firm On Land

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31060, 16 May 1966, Page 3

Maoris Firm On Land

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, May 15. Maori land laws could be changed as a result of a conference arranged by the Maori Council and the Auckland University department of extension. The desire of Maori people to find means of retaining and using their land was made clear when the conference passed resolutions dealing with specific aspects of land legislation. The conference was attended by about 90 delegates from all parts of New Zealand. It used as a basis for its discussions the Prichard-Waet-ford report which made recommendations to the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Hanan) on changes in law affecting Maori land. The report recommended that the conversion value of

uneconomic land interests be raised from £25 to £lOO. The conference rejected this unanimously, wanting the conversion ceiling to remain £25. Conversion, the process of buying uneconomic interests, was said in the report to be a function which should be assumed by the Crown. The conference made it clear that it considered the agency for conversion should be the Maori Trustee. It rejected the proposition that fragmented land interests should ever become Crown land and become available for general disposal. The recommendation of the conference was that the Maori trustee should take over the interests and offer to sell them to other owners or, failing that, to other Maoris. It favoured the time payment recommendation. MEETING SOUGHT Waikato Federated Farmers will arrange a special meet-

ing with Maori farmers in the Raglan district, to try to solve some of the problems of Maori land ownership. The Raglan County Council and members of the Department of Maori Affairs and other Government departments will be invited to the meeting, which will try to find some way to make more land available to Maori farmers for the settlement of their families.

Maori farmers were having difficulty getting satisfactory finance for the further development of leased land, said Mr K. J. Hewitt, president of Waikato Federated Fanners. Of the four million acres of Maori land, about three million acres were owned privately. Mr Hewitt said Federated Farmers would like to see some private land made available to approved Maori farmers for purchase so they could embark on individual development, particularly for the settlement of families.