NATIVE LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 449, 6 March 1909, Page 3

NATIVE LANDS.

-A DIFFICULT PROBLEM. The Native lands . question jiromißes to be a serious "problem for the New Zealand Government for years to come. With the opening up of the country, there has been practically & European invasion of the Native areas. ' The Main Trunk line of railway has destroyed' any chance which the King Country may have had of becoming a Native sanctuary; In the Wanganui, Taranaki, and Raglan districts there are thousands, in fact morfe than a million, of acres of. Native lands, at present lying idle, and settlers in all directions are clamouring that these lands should be handled in such a way that they .may become reproductive. Thon, again, tho enterprise of industrious pioneers is I stifled, owing to tho fact that there are no roads through the Maori lands to the European sections. Mr. W. .Glenn, who has a section of land up the Wanganui Biver, instanced a case where, although, the road' within twenty miles of the town had been constructed thirty-six years ago, it was still unmetalled. Native lands, with their restrictions, were the cause of the trouble "The Roadless North I" said a Hawera farmer to a Dominion representative. "Let the Minister come here in the winter, and Tfe can show him a roadless, • muddy Taranaki that he would never forget." Only ten miles from'Hawera was the Tangahoe Valley Road, leading through some splendid country, but only a pack-track. Agitation had followed agitation for a systematic roadmg' scheme for tho district, but all to no purpose, and simply on account of the Native land restrictions. There was the same complaint from, the farmers in the Taumarunui and Te Kuiti districts. The present phase of the Native lands difficulty will be not only a problem to the New Zealand Government, but also to the Maoris themselves. Briefly, it appears as if the Natives will have, to shoulder the burden of industry, or lose their lands.