NATIVE LAND QUESTION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9297, 26 July 1901, Page 5

NATIVE LAND QUESTION.

Attack on the Government's Legislation. Strong Remarks hy Mr A. L. D. Fraser. {FROM OUR RoRrvfAMENrARY REPORTEb) [by telegraph.] Wellington, Last night. Mr A. L. D. Fraser made a violent attack on the native land legislation of the Government in the House to-night. The Government, he declared, had filched land from the natives, and the " Twelve Apostles'" were not a circumstance-com-pared to them. He knew of several cases during the last five years in which the Government had been giving 63 and 10s an acre tor native land for which Europeans hud been prepared to pay £2 and £3 an acre, besides which when the Government purchased such land the native was left stranded without an acre to his name, after having received only a quarter or half the value of his land. No enquiry was in such cases held as to whether he had sufficient la_d left for his maintenance, although when a European bought Maori land he had to go before a Trust Commissioner and satisfy him that the Native was left with sufficient land to maintain him, or that the price paid was fair, but no enquiries of that kind were made when the Government purchased. The Premier : Yes, Mr Fraser, I absolutely deny that. Continuing, Mr Fraser said that when a European bought land from a native trustee the moneys had to be paid over to the Public Trustee and used for the support and education of the children of the trust, but when the Government purchased land under similar circumstances the whole of the purchase money was paid to the native trustee, and the unfortunate minors were left without anything. The Government would not allow the natives either to sell or to lease their lands, although there were thousands of acres lying idle in the North Island, because the Government had had their surfeit and would not allow anyone else a share. In* that very building natives had waited on the Native Minister asking to be allowed to sell or lease some land to enable them to pay their debts, and he. could not comply with their request because the legislation brought down last session was unworkable. He hoped that members woul. take an interest in this matter, and that such legislation would be placed on the Statute Book as would remove for ever the bastard attempts they had seen passed during the last two or three years.