MAORI LAND FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 17, Issue 288, 22 August 1923, Page 8

MAORI LAND FUNDS

A PROPHECY AND A PLEA

That the funds of the Alaori Land Boards should be conserved to the use of the Maori race and applied chiefly to educating the Maoris to earn their livelihood when, in the inevitable course of time, they become landless, was the plea made to the Government last night by_ the Hon. A. T. Ngnta (Eastern Alaori). “The day is not far distant,” he said, “when the Government will be called upon to fgee the problem of a landless Native race. It would to-day need a commission to discover the remnant of the large Native land holdings in the King Country. It is inevitable that those who will not use their land must be displaced, but the Government must face the position. We do not wish to see a half-educated, unprovided-foi remnant of the race not taking its place in the community. The Government should carefully see to the education on practical lines of the Alaori people particularly_along industrial lines. The Government is doing a great deal in the primary schools, secondary schools, and universities, but we see great gaps in the chain of progress which is intended to fit our people for the struggle in life. What we desire the Government to acknowledge is that these funds are our funds, and that we have some right to say in what direction they should be expended. It is the Maori’s own money, and should be used for his own good.”