The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, JULY 21, 1890.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5888, 21 July 1890, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. MONDAY, JULY 21, 1890.

Eveeyone who knows anything about tho laws relating to native lande, or who has had any experience of their operation, hue only one opinion to offer concerning them. We should bo sorry to say how many of these Acts ere more or less in force, but we believe we are correct in putting them down at not less than forty And the opinion is that the only thing to do with them is to put the lot into tho fire; in other words to consolidate those that are of any valuo, and to repeal the rest. A correspondent signing himself •'Ngatiraukawa" in a letter to tho Post says :—These Acts have been so constantly tinkered at already that it is tiino they were all repealed and a consolidation Act passed instead of them, but some of tho provisions at present in force ought, for the good of tho country, to be cut out entirely. Can anyone defend the justice of the preseut tax of 10 per cent, on the value of all leases and purchases from Maoris ? This tax was imposed as a deterrent at a time when every obstacle was thrown in tho way of dealing with native lands : but now that Government has declared in favor of free trade in thesu, tho retention of a heavy, almost penal, tax like this is indefensible. Lessees and purchasers of Maori lands, direct from the owners, have been amongst tho most efficient pioneers of settlement, and in almost every instance have benefited the country as a whole and the Maori owners quite as much as they have advanced their own interests. Much baa been talked in and out of the Houso about saving tho natives from land sharks, but is it not a fact that, from tho Maori point of view, Government itself is, and alwaye has been, the father of all laud sharks? If anvono questions tho justice of the Maori opinion on this poh.t, let him examine a return furnished to the House some yoarsago giving prices paid by private persons, and also by Government, for certain blocks of native laud. It is admitted by everyone who has any knowledge of tho subject, j that, save in *« few exceptional oases, the ! best thing a native can do with his land for his own advantage is to lease at a fair rental to a European Yet, in the face of thie knowledge, we have people who pose us philo-Maoris perpetuating this iniquitous tax of 10 per cent, on the capitalised rental value of every len.-je under the Acts at present in force. If our legislators wish to perform an act of simple justice let them make the stamp duties alike on all transfers, whether between Europeans only or between Europeans and Maoris.