Maori Shrewdness.
From Hansard :—Mr Crowther : When the Natives are paid for the land we know that they (the Natives) go and buy good land back again at £1 an acre, leaving the common poor land for the Government to keep. There is no chance that the Natives do not know about. Let anyone go among them now with the view of buying land, and the Natives will take good care to ask a good price for it. It is not now as it was ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago ; and you can no longer go amongst them with a bottle of rum or a blanket and acquire their lands. Go now and they look at you, and if they find that you have any object of that sort they will order you off their land. We heard a good deal lately about what the Hon. the Premier and the Native Minister had done to civilise the Urewera people, and we find that they were civilised long before the time when the Hon. the Premier went through their country. When I was in their country one day I went into one of their stores. They have stores amongst them, and I went into one of them to get a pinch of salt, but to get it I had to buy a 21b bag. I look a pinch out and then gave back the bag. That is the kind of people they have in the Urewera country. That is civilisation ; and I say that if yon go to buy their land you will have to pay a full price for it
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Bibliographic details
Hastings Standard, Issue 111, 3 September 1896, Page 4
Word Count
271Maori Shrewdness. Hastings Standard, Issue 111, 3 September 1896, Page 4
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