PROMISES TO MAORIS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 5, 1 October 1935, Page 8

PROMISES TO MAORIS

Leader Pledges Democrat Party

LAND GRIEVANCES

Dominion Special Service.

Auckland, September 30,

Incantation and ’ tribal ceremony were quaintly and picturesquely mingled at Orakei Native village this morning, when the Maori policy of the Democrat Party was outlined by the leader, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, who arrived from Wellington this morning. Ab Orakei visitors were welcomed by a party of women waving greenery and chanting in a spirited way. The Natives were then drawn up in a semicircle in front of the marao and the various speakers, in the usual Maori courteous way. extended a very cordial welcome to the visitors.

One woman speaker greeted Mr. Hislop as “the new-born baby,” and explained by that that she meant the leader of the new political party. Through the greetings ran the question of the Orakei lands, which have been the subject of much controversy, ami all the Native speakers urged that that matter should be inquired into as speedily as possible. In his address, Mr. Hislop said that the pakehas had a high regard for the Maori race, but the time had come to folloiv it with action. The affairs of the Maori people in Taranaki, Waikato and the South Island bad been examined by commissions, and the commissions! had found judgment for tihe Maori people, but nothing had been done to carry out those judgments. He gave the pledge of the Democrat Party that they would carry out the findings of those commissions which were iu favour of the Maoris. (Applause.) There were other matters for investigation concerning the . Maori people, and those investigations would be made before impartial judges ami their decisions would be carried out. The Orakei people had a special grievance di their own over their land, The question of the Orakei lands would be fully dealt with by t'he Democrat Party, and the findings of the commission’would be carried out in full.

Mr. Hislop said that he could not act alone, and his party's 'Candidates would have to be elected in order that they should have a strong force. He therefore asked them to support the Maori Democrat candidates. He said they were going to win the election, and when they won it they would be able to meet all legitimate grievances of the Maori people. x Mr. Hislop said the Maori policy of the Democrat Party had been carefully drawn up. It would provide for the protection of the rights and liberty of the Maori people and apply the spirit and letter of the Treaty of Waitangi. It was proposed to provide for n greater representation of Maori interests in the system of general and local body government; to provide tor pt least two Maori members in the Legislative Council, and to provide for Maori elections to be conducted on the same basis as pakeha elections, with a secret ballot and Maori electoral rolls. The policy included the investigation of all Maori land grievances, to include compensation and immediate settlement of confiscated lands in the North Island and the forbidding of proclamations unless for immediate specific purposes. Other proposals were the extension to the Maori people of the benefits of special social legislation, Including housing; equal rights under a national development unemployed scheme; to provide a Maori hostelry at Wellington and at other places the same as at Auckland, development and extension on economic lines of Maori settlement schemes, and a representative Maori advisory council, which would be attached to the office of the Nat’ive Minister.