NATIVE MINISTER

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 60, 8 September 1934, Page 10

NATIVE MINISTER

LABOUR CRITICISM

The opinion that the resignation- of ;he Native Minister (Sir Apirana Ngata) should have been accepted by the Prime Minister, till such time as the Native Affairs Commission's report' bad been disposed of, was expressed by Mr. J. W. Munro (Labour, Dunedin North) in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon. Mr. Munro said that ho did not want to make reference to the matter, but he considered that it was tho duty of a member of the Opposition to do so. At the present time matters concerning Native land development were sub .iudice. He had a great admiration for Sir Apirana Ngata. Though what he intended to say was unpleasant, he still thought that the Minister's resignation should have been accepted by the Prime Minister till such time as the matters being inquired into had been disposed of. "1 don't wish, to say that," said Mr. Munro, "but time after time I have met all sections of the community and they have asked me' why the Opposition did not do its duty, and I promised that I would put the matter before the House. I that I have done my duty, even though ?t has been unpleasant!"