UNPAID RATES ON MAORI LANDS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 September 1949, Page 3

UNPAID RATES ON MAORI LANDS

WELLINGTON, Sept. 20 (P.A.).— One county is his electorate had received £3OO in rates out of £6606 that had been struck on Maori land, said Mr S. W. Smith (Opposition, Hobson), discussing Maori votes on the Estimates in the House of Representatives today. That was not enough and it was quite unfair to leave the cost of roads and maintenance to European settlers to bear. He thought that the Maori Affairs Department should pay all rates after they took over any property. The Minister in charge of the department (Mr Fraser) said the rates question was an important . one, but he believed the position had improved substantially in recent years, especially on the East Coast. Mr Fraser said that in a number of counties in the last two years the percentage of Maori rates paid ranged from 80 to 100 per cent. Maoris were better able to pay rates than in the past simply because they now had better incomes. The department’s attitude was the same as it had been for many years: that when the land was productive it should pay its share of the rates. Mr J. N. Massey (Opposition, Frankton) said county councils had power to sell land if the rates on it were not paid, but there . was no known example of such action being taken in regard to Maori lands. Simplification of Maori titles should be expedited.