Hawke's Bay Herald THUREDAY, MAY 28, 1865. NATIVE LANDS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7174, 28 May 1885, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald THUREDAY, MAY 28, 1865. NATIVE LANDS.

Among the bills to be introduced early Iv the session of Parliam ant, we are told, _ is one dealing with native lands. If t Mr Ballance'a utterances to the natives v in the Waikato form any guide to what 1 will be the proposals of the Ministry, 1 their Native Lands Bill will be a pre- i eminently objectionable measure. He j there stated that it was his intention to ] stop all sales of both Crown and native ' lands, and to introduce a new system of ' leasing only. He also said that ho would propose that the Native Lands Court should, become a mere registering body, to ratify titles after the natives had agreed upon the subdivision. The colony is just now about to spend over a million of money iv making a railway through the North Island, and for nearly the whole of its length it will pass through native lands. For future traffic the railway must rely chiefly upon the bringing of those lands iuto profitable occupation, for the through traffic will certainly not pay the bare working expenses of the line. Past experience shows us only too clearly that the natives will not cultivate their lands beyond mere patches to raise corn and vegetables for their own use. To ensure occupation profitable to the colony those lands must therefore be settled by Europeans. But we know that a majority of the King natives are averse to either selling or leasing their lands. They prefer to keep them as preserves of the wild pig and the eel. Until their lands pass through the Court Europeans cannot occupy them. Mr Ballance proposes to leave the natives to settle their own claims to land. It is manifest, on the face of it, that this will stop all settlement, for the natives opposed to European occupancy will oppose any settlement, and thus keep these vaßt tracts of country unproductive for a generation or more, until wisercounsels prevail. Therefore the proposal to leave the natives to settle questions of title is most objectionable, viewed in the interests of the colony. The very reverse action should be taken. The natives should be told that if they will not bring their land into profitable occupation, it shall be passed through the Court as a preliminary to its occupation by Europeans, either through sale or lease. The King country should be systematically surveyed, and when a block was defined a certain day should be fixed when the Lands Court would proceed to investigate the title. If the natives can agree to a subdivision, by all means let the Court register that agreement as its judgment ; if they cannot agree the Court should proceed to investigate the title on its own motion. The land could then be brought into occupation of Europeans, either direct from the natives, or through the Crown. We do not say that the market should be left open ; we are strongly inclined to favor a resumption of the Crown's pre-emptive right, especially over those lands lying contiguous to the railway, so that the value added to the land by the railway should go into the coffers of the colony. There is a large and glaring inconsistency in Mr Ballance's proposals to deal with native and Crown lands. He is what ia called an "advanced" thinker on the land question, and has a decided leaning to Henry George's views. He objects to the Crown alienating lands en the ground that in so doing it not only Bells the laud but the future " unearned increment." He therefore proposes only to lease Crown lands in the future. That ; proposal is intelligible, and even reasonable from his view-point, and is quite in accordance with , Henry George's ideas. But at the same time Mr Ballance proposes to make native land inalienable, and so to secure to the Maoris for ever the " unearned increment" — doubly unearned in their case, for they contribute nothing to the progress of the colony. He would prevent the industrious European settler, who by improving his land . contributes to the prosperity of the 1 colony, and so helps to create the unearned increment, from sharing in it; but he would do exactly the reverse in the case of the Maoris, of whom it may be almost literally said, lC they toil not, neither do they spin." What would Mr Ballance's mentor, Henry George, say to such a proposal ? We can imagine the trenchant language in which he would show the amazing inconsistency of his disciple. Why, ' Henry George proposes to tax to ruination point all unoccupied land, and he would be the first to put such taxes on Maori lands as would force the owners to part with them to men who would occupy them profitably. Parliament, wo feel sure, will never give assent to ' two such opposite propositions as those of < the Minister for Lands.