MAORIS LEAVE FARMS: LURE OF SOCIAL SECURITY

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1947, Page 8

MAORIS LEAVE FARMS: LURE OF SOCIAL SECURITY

[SPECIAL TO STAR! .WELLINGTON, This Day. ■An allegation that some Maoris ,in the western bay area of Taupo have given up farming for social security benefits was made by a party of Gisborne farmers who have just returned, says the Gisborne correspondent of the Dominion. One farmer said there were • several quite fertile valleys on the western bay side of Taupo, ' where there was evidence that farming had been carried on for many years. Today they were derelict areas. Houses were deserted and fast going into disrepair. There had been some good homestead orchards, but now the fruit trees were unpruned, and there was virtually nothing on the trees. Many useful implements, such as ploughs, discs, and a chaff-cutter, were lying in the op‘en slowly rusting away. The Maori meeting-house was empty, with grass and weeds growing in profusion around it. Most of the stock had been removed from the farms, but there were some cattle, which were now in a wild state. The visitors spoke to Maoris who had been on a pig hunting expedition, and who said that they were working in a sawmill some miles away. “What has become of the Maori farmers?” visitors asked., “In Taupo on social security,” was the reply given. The Maoris said that the farms, used to be worked well, but when the occupants learned of social security benefits they decided that it was ’more profitable, and a better dife, to be in Taupo township than to live so far from civilisation and do the hard Work of the .farm.