THE SETTLER'S SIDE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1170, 4 July 1911, Page 5

THE SETTLER'S SIDE.

MR. MASSEY ON NATIVE LANDS.

(By TcJecraph.—Special Correspondent.) Auckland, July 3.

Asked if t lie had anything to say in reply to Sir James Carroll's speech at-In-veroargill, Mr. W. F. Massey, M.P., Leader of the Opposition, said that as Sir J a raes Carroll was, at all events, , temporarily the head of the "great Liberal party, he was entitled to a reply, and would get it in every detail, and on every point, but 'he (Air. Massey) would use the platform for the purpose. As Sir James Carroll, however, had challenged the accuracy of his figures, he would say that the figures he quoted were from an official document, Parliamentary Paper G3, 1909, and that was the last return of details of Native land ' transactions available to members of the public. The Parliamentary paper he reform! to showed the area of Native lands held by Maoris as at December 21, 1908, to be 7,401,825 acres; lands leased by Maori owners, 2,560,958; lands leased on behalf of owners, 486,140; lands in Maori occupation, 360,000, mnking in all 3,407,098, and lea'ving 3,994,727 acres as at September 30, 1909. No doubt the system of Maori landlordism had been extended since the date mentioned by certain blocks beintj leased to European settlers.

'. Mr. Massey added that he was pleased the Acting-Prime Minister, by recent speeches, had materially assisted in calling attention to one of the greatest evils this country had to deal witfi, and which he thought accounted for the very serious state of affairs disclosed, in the same copy of the "Herald" with regard to arrivals and departures. The departures for the first six months of the present year from the port of Auckland alone exceeded the arrivals by 2775. It was rather a coincidence, said Mr. Massey in, conclusion, that in tho same paper in which Sir James Carroll's speech appeared there was a complaint from the • Northern Land League in which they said: ( ~"Now, as heretofore, you may look to 'the four points of the compass in Holdanga, and you will see the samo stretches of bush land owned' and unoccupied by tho Native,- who still lives in the same poverty, receiving old -aqo : pensions and charitable aid, while his land fosters! noxious weeds, and remains the home of the wild pig. Neither European nor Native could obb : n f"l! m-nsnerty, nor could we add that enormous quota of wealth to the coffers •of the Dominion) which we were justified in believing would re-'h fv- . , . . , lands, until this taihoa. policy' ia swept away."

There was the settler's side of the question, said Mr. Massey. Sir James Carroll had put the Government side. He left the public to judge as to which was the better for the country.