MAORI FARMS AND MAORI LOANS

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 17, 19 July 1929, Page 8

MAORI FARMS AND MAORI LOANS

Quarter of a century or more ago. a proposal was made in Parliament that the remaining Maori lands should bs bought and paid for, and that the Maoris should look lo the money fund thus created (and not to the land) to support them. The idea had behind it the argument that it the lands were taken as a whole -—without wasting time and money in finding block ownership or creating individual titles—their prompt settlement would make them an economic asset instead of an encumbrance and pest-danger to the country; also, thai the Natives could as well contest their rights in the money us in the land. Sir Apirana (then Mr.) Ngala opposed this monetary separation of the Maoris and their land, and ho has been consistent throughout in his contention that the salvation of tho Maori lies in work on the soil, and not in the mere receipt of money, through somebody else's work. He is reported as saying in the House of Representatives last night:

The method of lotting a trustee look after Native land is not satisfactory, as it leads to the Maori getting money too easily without working. We are out to compel tho Maori to work, and by work to achieve his salvation.

For results, Maori farming achieve-, ments in Sir Apirana Ngata's own district may be pointed to, also in qthev parts of New Zealand, but as Minister of Native Affairs he avoids any temptation to' over-paint them. The trustee principle has at least helped to accumulate Native funds, to such an extent that these funds administered by the Native Trust Office have supplied all the advances received by borrowing Maori farmers. "It is not State money, but wholly Maori." The fact that the Maoris have not been financed by the Stale Advances Office—though, as fellowsubjects with the whites, there is no bar against them—has probably escaped the attention of the white electorate. Lack of State loans is no justification for non-payment of Maori rates. But if State lending could secure interest and principal, perhaps it ..might gather in the rates too.