NATIVES AND THEIR LANDS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 147, 7 June 1911, Page 7

NATIVES AND THEIR LANDS.

HON. JAMES CARROLL’S VIEWS.

Wellington, June 6.

This morning representative settlers from Hamua, in the Fortymile Bush, waited on the ActingPrime Minister (the Hok. J. Carroll). They w r ere introduced by Mr. A. W. Hogg, M.P. The settlers are sub-lessees of small areas of lanu which had been leased by the Natives to Mr. Yule ror sawmilling purposes. The term of the lease is about to expire, and they asked that some arrangement should be made whereby they could get a renewal of the lease from the Natives.

The Minister said the position was a very difficult one, because there was no provision in the law by which they could compel any owner to lease his land. All he could do w’as to regulate alienation. The Maoris had not been the reapers of any advantage so far as the leasing of the land was concerned. The land w as leased for sawmilling, but when the timber had been removed the lessee leased the cleared portion, to sub-tenants. It was a pity they did not hold from the Maori owner, who, he was sure, would have made concessions to them. The owner was now in failing health, and his condition wasf rather serious. He (the Minister) had precluded operations over this, land so as to prevent private speculators taking it from them. But the chief had been pained by what had been said of the Maoris, that they were a bar to settlement, and that they should not have any land. Those wholesale statements had “touched up” the feelings of the old chief as they w’ould “touch up” the feelings of a European. He was afraid that they had hardened up the chief and his people to the extent that he wanted to keep the land to show that his people were not lazy, that they were industrious, and that they could work on the land, especially on their own land. If the settlers were certain they could make arrangements with the Natives and obtain a fresh lease of their sections at a fresh valuation and on satisfactory terms he would remove the proclamation, and he would also point out to the chief the desirability of maintaining §pod tenants on the land. He would sooner see Maori land leased than sold. They must look after the future generations and prevent their being deprived of a means of subsistence. The Government did not want- to burden their institutions at a later date with a population of 40,000 paupers. At the same time the Government .rgei the Natives to lease their lands to Europeans on terms of advant ige to both parties and to land settlement generally.