Evening post TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1907. MAORI WRONGS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1907, Page 4

Evening post TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1907. MAORI WRONGS.

It has often been remarked that in recent years the Crown, while protecting the Maoris against the depredations of the ordinary land-shark, has become the greatest of land-sharks itself. It would ill become the momberß of the Native Land Commission to talk in this rhetorical strain, but it is easy to see that the measured terms of their general ropoit admit of a very similar interpretation. Tho commissioners point out that prior to 1305 there was no machinery fixed by law for .determining tho minimum price to be offprcd by the Crown for native land. In Ihu absence either of any such machinery or of any competition to fix tho price, it was inevitable that, even though the paity which had secured a monopoly of the right of purchase, was tho Crown, tho native owners should often get the worst of the deal. The Crown can only act through ita agents, an J those agents would be something more than human ii! they wero not ( | liable to err, and in erring to favour, j it may be involuntaiily. the paity by j whom and on whose behalf they were appointed. The natives have had ho independent tribunal and no rival pnrl cha3er to appeal to. and' their only alternatives have been to accept the price offered or to lose tho chance of a sale. Nine times out of ten, or of ■ tener, they have proferred the former alternative, for precisely thp same improvidonce which makes the Maori need I protection against the wiles of the private speculator rentiers him incapable of refusing an inadequate cash offer from tho Crown. "A sight' of a Government cheque-book is," ac the commissioners say, "sufficient for tho majority of ownern to waive all con1 eideratioui, and £u.t their tign§t>lM4i tfi w

1 the purchase deeds." The result was that injustice was a frequent characf teristic of Crown purchases prior to 1905, and special reference is made to ! "tho vast estate which passed from the natives for general settlement purposes in Wanganui and the King Country at a price which seems inadequate." This is very unpleasant reading, and will not carry less weight with the thinking on account of the mild manI ncr in which it is expressed, but for tho ordinary reader it would have been more impressive if accompanied by details of area, prices, and tho total amount short paid. To re-open a transaction of this kind, especially in the department of Native Affairs, would be to establish a very awkward precedent} yet how can the public conscience be afc ease .with the knowledge that in this and many other eases the colony has unwittingly robbed its native proteges of hundreds and -thousands of pounds? Since 1905, however, there has been a change for the better. Prjor to that year theie was no power of taking native lands compulsorily except for public works and scenic reserves. In this re* epect the Maori was more nigbly privileged than the- pakeha, wL'o had long been subject to the provisions jbf the Land for Settlements Acts, and in removing this distinction by the Maori Land Settlement Act of 1905, the Legislature at tho same time fixed the minimum price to be paid to tho native owners afc tho capital valuo assessed under tho Government Valuation of Land Act. "This," say the commissioners, "was equitable" ; and yefc the assessments of tho Department, at which fe"w owners of ordinary land waald bo content to be bought out, are a more uncertain and unsatisfactory element, still in the case of native land. "In the absence of competition," sa.v the commissioners, "an approach to market vahio was difficult- of ' ascertainment." It might, indeed, he said that there was no actual, but only a prospective, market value for lands excluded by law from the market, and the problem" was certainly one of an exceedingly elusive character, Tho chargs which has frequently boon made against the Government of purchasing native land at a price less than that which the timber alone would have commanded in the market is unfortunately given some colour by the commissioners' report. "It is admitted," they say, "that in the respect of lands carrying milling-timber in localities where such timber can be economically* worked, the Crown has made no allowance for iti» value, alleging that in the hands of the Waste Lands Boards lnilliug timber is not an asset." This extraordinary sample of official reasoning is conclusively disposed of for tho unofficial intellect by the pertinent question of the commissioners. "Why," thoy ask, '"should the Maori owners ba penalised because in the administration of our Crowa lands the most has not been made of valuable milling timber?" It is surely monstrous that the Crown should be given a monopoly of the purchase of native lands, and then should claim the right to purchase at a price limited by that monopoly, for that, though tho claim is not expressly so formulated, is what it amounts to. The excellent suggestions of the commissioners that the present system of purchases by (■he Crown shall cease, and that the principle of auction shall be applied both to sales and to leases in future, supply an automatic solution of this problem, under which tho market price will" be determihed by competition on the market. This pavt, ab any rate, of the commissioners' recommendations commends itself to the Government, for the Budget states that "Parliament will bo asked to pass legislation and pul into effect this purpose, and to pi'ovide that all native lands proposed to bo alienated, either under leasehold o> freehold tenuro, shall bo disposed of, after full advertisements, by public competition." With reference to the carrying out of its work, it is to be noted, .by thn. way, • that the commission 'makes two important recommendations — (1) that on -notification of its intention to enquire into any block of land, i\ll dealings therewith 'shall be suspended until such time as the commission thinks fit; (2) that the specific recommendations of the commission shall have the effect of law, unless, within thirty days of their beinpr laid before Parliament, an adverse resolution is passed by cither House. The last is what would be colloquially termed a "large order," though wo certainly do npt expect Parliament to improve upon the vstatesmanslike proposals of the commissioners.