MAORI AGRICULTURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 26 August 1927, Page 4

MAORI AGRICULTURE.

Any development which will strengthen the connection of the Maori people with the soil is to be welcomed. They are essentially cultivators, for long before the arrival of the earliest settlers they were compelled to look to the land for a large measure of the means of subsistence. With the introduction of cereals when Europeans first arrived, they were not slow to realise the value of additional food supplies, and. the profits to bo gained by the raising of crops were soon recognised. In the earliest days, Auckland depended largely on the supply of wheat grown by the Maoris in the King Country, and at the present time agricultural and pastoral industries, as well as dairying, engage the attention of a considerable number of the native people. While the methods employed by some may not be wholly in line with modern scientific 'standards, yet the very fact that, in many instances, they are making profitable use of the land which is left to them is a matter for congratulation. The report of the sowing of a large acreage in wheat near Wanganui by the followers of Katana, involving the use of tractors for ploughing, shows that they are apt pupils in the cultivation of crops. No doubt the influence of the younger Maoris has an important bearing ou this development of industries connected with the land, for many have had the advantage of the admirable training given at To Auto College, and it is in the instruction given there, and in the efforts of some of the well-educated members of the Maori race, that hopes of a still greater development are centred. Already there have been several successful co-operative efforts, and one in the Waiapu Valley, in Poverty Bay, is a striking illustration of -what can be achieved "when the Maoris settle down to serious wmrk. There, they decided to go in for dairying, and arranged to build a butter factorj', and so great was the interest shown, and so whole-heartedly did they take up the scheme, that they doubled their output in tho second year, when they produced 180 tons of butter. Even if their methods could in some cases be considered crude by modern dairymen, they all realised the necesisty for tho highest grade of cattle and bought the best, strains for the foundations of their herds. There are over sixty suppliers, ami) an instance of the progressive methods. adopted by some of them is afforded by the fact that over twenty milking plants are in use in the valley. Apart from the financial gains and the addition to the production of the Dominion, the benefit to the Native race of remunerative and sustained labour in occupations on the land cannot be over-estimated.