NATIVE LANDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 November 1924, Page 4

NATIVE LANDS.

RATING PROBLEM. LIABILITY OF OWNERS. SYSTEM OF RECOVERY. (BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION. WELLINGTON, Nov. 1. The question of rates on native lands was before the House of Representatives to-day, when the Hon. J. G. Coates moved the second reading of the Native Land Rating Bill. The Minister referred to the original settlement on the land of the natives. They divided the land among themselves, and their titles were derived sometimes by occupation and sometimes by conquest. In either case they were dear to those who held them. Then the war with the Europeans intervened, and some of these lands were confiscated, with the result that . the loss of their territory rankled in the breast of the natives for several generations. It was, under these circumstances, pleasing to find the native members of the House assisting the Government to clear away the difficulties which naturally arose between the two races in occupation of native land.

The Bill before the House would, he thought, go a long way to this endThe Bill provided for native land to be liable to rates in the same manner as if it were European land. Exemptions were made for customary native land not exceeding five acres occupied by burial grounds, and not more than five acres on which a meeting-house was erected. Other classes of native land might he exempted by Order-in-Council. Where native land was vested in trust in the Maori Land Board, the Nativee Trustee, or the East Coast Commissioner, the trustee is required to pay all rates on that land, but onlv to the extent, of the net revenue received on behalf of beneficiary owners of the' land affected.

There were provisions for the recovery of rates on native land, with a proviso that the same right of appeal as that exercised by an ordinary ratepayer might be held where it was decided that rates were payable. A charge over the land could be made to secure recovery if the charge remained unpaid for a period of more than twelve months. The land affected could be vested in the Native Trustee to be sold for the recovery of rates, but it may. however, in the discretion of the Native Trustee be mortgaged instead of being sold. Local authorities were given power to remit, rates due on native land either, wholly or in .part. The Bill was passed without opposition.