NATIVE RATING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21978, 23 March 1946, Page 4

NATIVE RATING

MATAKAOA COUNTY BIG SUM IN ARREARS WELLINGTON LETHARGY Though the finances of the Matakaoa County have improved considerably since the institution of commissioner control some years ago, and the collections of rates are now substantially greater than in council-administration days, the county is still labouring under a heavy handicap in the matter of rate collections on native lands. One of the fruits of the Maori policy of retaining the freehold of their lands —a good policy in the long-term view for the Maori people—is that only a handful of properties in the county are owned by Europeans. Large numbers of others are held on a leasehold basis, and in time will revert to their native owners, presumably to pass in time under the control of native development schemes. Record of Payments Rate payments on lands held or occupied by Europeans have yielded a fairly satisfactory percentage of the county revenue for several years. Maori lands controlled by native families or by settlement schemes supervised from Gisborne and Rotorua also have a good record of payments in recent years. There is, however, a standing difficulty in collecting rates from a large area which the Native Department controls from the head office at Wellington. This area forms part of a large slice of the county lying between the Matakaoa-Opotiki counties’ boundary to the north-west and the Auckland registration district boundary which cuts a deep loop into Matakaoa territory. Annual rates on this section represent several hundreds a year, and while the Waiariki and Tairawhiti Maori Land Boards supervising settlement schemes in the county have been most helpful to the county administration, the degree of co-operation from the Wellington headquarters of other blocks has not been conspicuous. In all, the blocks administered from Wellington represent a sizeable proportion of the county’s 229 square miles of territory, and a settlement of the rate problem there would ease the county’s finances con- . siderably.

Accumulation of Arrears

Accumulations of unpaid rates on these blocks amount to £9OOO in all. Outstanding rates for the past two rating years alone run to £BOO. While the county is endeavouring to finance works for the improvement of access to back-country homesteads, it finds difficulty in bringing the department up to its responsibilities in regard to rates due on native blocks.

County administration is in need of funds at present, for one of its liabilities, the provision of shipping facilities at Hicks Bay, seems likely to stand well on the deficit side of the current year’s acounts. In the past season only 1396 bales of wool have been shipped over the Hicks Bay wharf, and fertiliser imports have shrunk to about 80 tons. These figures are a long way below the pre-war totals, and while an improvement might be expected in regard to fertilisers when controls are lifted—■ the 1939 total of such imports was about 300 tons—the competition of road transport for the good wool freights from the Matakaoa County seems likely to affect permanently the prospects of port administration at Hicks Bay.