FOR PAKEHA AND MAORI

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 25, 29 July 1907, Page 7

FOR PAKEHA AND MAORI

« The deSnitenoss of the recommendations of the Native Land Commission must be very welcome to the weary politician who is quite satisfied that nr.tive affairs are being woefully mismanaged, but has not hitherto had any idea where to turn in order to effect an improvement. Is there anybody who after reading the commissioners' ;lt|i*id l bjfJtWUioa <>f tlib Subject will venture to dispute the wisdom of the first of their proposals : — "That the purchase of native lands under the prcsont system be discontinued?" With regard to ponding dealings, tho commissioners desiro to see them completed through the Maori Land Board of the district concorned, "after due enquiry as to the wishes of tho non-selleis ii^ the different blocks affected, and with due -Regard to the location and accessibility of the Crown interosts." As to the disposal of the purchase money, tha commissioners mako ji recommendation 01 the verj first importance, viz., that three- fourths of it should bo paid to tho Public Trustee in trust for tho owners, to be invested for their benefit or used for the improvement of their lands ; and that tho remaining fourth share should bu paid to the owners in catch. We regard tha recognition of this principle as absolutely essential to any system of purchase, private or public, from tho natives, and havo nzvav been able to understand haw many of tho Maori's best friends, while zealous to secure him in the possession of his land, or in acquiring a fair price - for any part of it that ho may sell, have regarded their responsibility as ending there. That he is in general unfit to manage a large cstato or to get a proper price for it if ho is allowed to face tho open market unprotected, has long been an accepted principle ; but- the fact that this unfitnoss implies an equal incapacity to deal with large sums of money to his own advantage has beon strangely' overlooked. As a matter of fact, money is even more easily frittered away than land j yet even so recently as in 1905 tho Legislature acted upon Che contrary assumption, fencing round the sale of native land with elaborate restrictions, but taking no precautions whatever for ensuring that the capital value should be of permanent use to the owner after he had got it. Having vainly contended for tho recognition on that occasion of this elementary fact, we are thankful indeed to see it standing out in tho very fore-front of tha report oi the Native Land Commission. The commissioners further recommend "that alienation by direct negotiation between the owners and private individuals be prohibited," and tljat further alienations shsU take place only through the Maori Land Boards. We should not have been surprised to see the commis- J 3ioners advocaJing tho total abolition of these boards, but instead of that they j recommend that the prrsent constitution of the boards should continue, "but that the presidents should be drawn from men -experienced in th© cutting-up and letting of lands, and Bhould be Government officers paid by the Government," and also that nach board should have a competent accountant as clerk and receiver. We do not quite gather under what conditions the commission would allow these boards to sell at all ; but it has two admirable suggestions to mako with regard to tho mode of any alienation: — "All sales and looses to bo by auction to tho highest bidder, 1 ' and "No person may acquire land, either by purchase or lease, if unimproved valuo thereof, together with unimproved value of land be already holds under any tenure, exceeds JD3OCO." It is, indeed, as the commissioners say, "a curious reflection that while the colony has committed itself to a policy of clolo | settlement in respect of Crown latuls, with limitations as to tho ami i ny~ one selector may hold, it has permitted, and still apparently permits, aggregation in nativo lands." Tho commissioners believe that tho principle of limitation was intended to apply to these lands, and we do not suppose that the Legislature will foive any hesitation now in acting on their recommendation and filling • up a quite illogical and impolitic gap. With these- safeguards, to which has to be added that already referred to as to the pi/mi.m of thieefourtha cf the net procols to tho Publio TjHitSR fOJ' ifiYSltjafllt, tf»fi *ftJ9 Pi

native lands would becoticj v nimp ci editable, business, a;:u moro profitable for the Maoris than it has ever been before.