EMPTY COUNTRY

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 208, 19 August 1911, Page 7

EMPTY COUNTRY

ROOM FOR THOUSANDS OF PROSPEROUS FARMERS.

(Contributed.) (All Rights Reserved.)

Two outstanding facts have to * be borne in mind in considering the Native lands question. They are: —

]. That in less than, six years the supply of Crown land available for settlement will have been exhausted. (Dr. Findlav, Legislative Council, July Kk 1910.) 2. That of the 7,400.000 acres owned by the Maoris, an area of something like 5,000,000 acres —nearly one-fifth of the whole surface of the North Island — is lying absolutely idle and unproductive. Statement No. 2 requires some explanation. It was only arrived at after a diligent search through the latest Government reports and statistics at present available. The total area of Native land in the Dominion on March 31, 1910, was as under (vide “Statistics of the Dominion of New Zealand for the year 1909,” page 359): — Acres. Auckland 4,006,771 Hawke’s Bay .... 1,493,336 Taranaki 342,643 Wellington 1,533,836 Nelson 41,400 Total 7,417,986 The latest official return's as to the area of Native land leased is apparently that contained in the table as to the occupation of land published on Page 395 of the ‘'Statistics ’ for 1909. This gives a total of 1,906,968 acres of Native land held under lease. A note at foot of the table says that it is a repetition of that published in 1908, no later figures being available. Taking these figures ,a sum in subtraction gives the following result :— Acres.

Total area of Native land 7,417.986 Area leased 1,906,968 Area in Native hands 5,511,018 The Maori as a Farmer. The point now arises, What is the Maori doing with this 5,( million acres ? The only figures that throw any rea Hight on the question are those published in the Maori census returns collected once in every five years. The figures for this year’s census are not yet available. Those for the census of 1906, are to be found in the official census report .Appendix B, p. iii

Sheep 252.404 head Cat-tie 54,960 head Pigs 42,473 head Area under crop.. 40.608} acres On the liberal estimate of one aheep to the acre and one head of cattle to ten acres, this stock could be comfortably carried on 300,000 acres of grass land . If the area under crop is added, it given a total of 340,000 acres as under effective Maori occupation. No figures are published showing the number of horses owned by the Maoris. To allow for the grazing of these, and for the expansion that has taken place since 1906. it would be a liberal thing to add, say. 50 per cent, to area as above, thus making in round figures 500.000 acres in use for carrying Maori stock and crops.

The final position is, therefore, that given in statement No. 2 above:— TI. Maori lands. 7,417,980 Less Area leased.. 1,906,968 Area carrying crop and live stock .... 500,000 2,406,968

Native lands standing idle 5,011,018 ' These figures are not those given j by Ministers of the Crown in their references to the Native lands I question. The figures in Minister- ! .iai speeches that cannot be veri- ■ fied by reference to the official, public records h;. •? been ignored, i Sir John ;-then D■ Findlay, in the .' Legr.-da-tive Cornu■;! last year, for I instance that 3.000.000 acres* of Native ’an.i ■-■.>.? leased by the! Maori?. No traer >f this is to be I found in my ial document so j far avail;' de to the public. i Sir Jan vs Carroll at Invercar- I gill ■ >;. J..-u- (“Otago Dailv i Times." Any ‘ | ‘‘On M. a3i last the area own-! ed by tv. .'Jamis in the North Is-! land was 6.018.37! acres. Of this' 3,916..” p? acres was in profitable i occunati >r». lea vin ar a balance of; 2,102,1 a?i es of unoccupied Na-; tive lands. Of this balance 869.112 < acres w.-s- in the Public j Tru.-tt • < trustees, and) 279,002 a< ■. - at, * incorporated fori settlement •

M'hen ihts»- figures appear in the ; Par’ ’.anivnt ni . papers it will be I time to use them. Meanwhile, it is sufficient to note that in the ab-; sence of explanation of what Sir! James Cur' d means by ‘‘profit-i

able occupation" they are utterly

valueless.

A Quixotic Policy.

One interesting fact disclosed in the Year Book for 1910, p. 713, is that in the year ending on March 31, 1910, the Government spent the magnificent sum of £31,891 in acquiring 15,588 acres of Native land to be thrown open for public settlement.

Since the inauguration of the LaJid for Settlements policy in 1894, about which time the purchase of estates by the t.'rown began, the Government, up to March 31, 1910, has (see Year Book, 1910, pp. 576-7) spent a sum of £5,407,792 m' acquiring for subdivision 197 es-i tates, with a total area of 1,238,096'

acres. ■ During the same period the Crown has spent £676.245 in ac-; quiring 2.171.187 acres of Native land. This fact is not directly disclosed in any official publication. ! The Year Book, however, shows each i year the area of Native land purchased by the Crown since 18701 and the total sum paid for it. The' figures in the Year Books (p. 713). of 1910 and 1894 (p. 207) are respectively : — j Area acquired. Cost j Acres. £ i 1870-1910 ; (March 31) 8.004.851 2,072,322; 1870-1894 I (March 31) 5.833.664 1,996,077 j Operations 1 1894-1910 2,171.187 676,245 The private estates resumed were [ all in more or less profitable

. pation, but the Native land was ly- ‘ ing absolutely idle. ! Yet for every £1 spent in 1 buying Native land for settlement during the last 17 years, the Government has spent £9 j in acquiring private estates.

If the figures had been the other way round, it stands to reason that the production of the colony would have been enormously increased.

j Values Piling Up. Another point to be borne in mind is that the longer the purchase of the Native lands is deferred the greater will be the price to be paid for them. The Year Book for 1895. p. 157, states that the area of Native land “in the hands of Natives” was then between 9 and 10 million acres. It proceeds: “In 1888 the Native lands were, valued at £3,000,000. The present value is probably not so much ; some land has been sold .but on the other hand some of that retained may have increased in value.”

Now turn to the corresponding, figures in the Year book of 1910, p. j 612 The value of the Native lands i and improvements, exclusive of: lessee’s interests, you are told was, ; on March 31, 1908, £11,413,545, the ■ area then being about 7.| million; acres. ;

Thus, although the area has decreased by about 25 per cent., the value of the Native lands increased by 3| millions sterling, or nearly 300 per cent, in 13 years.

Millions for Nothing

The Maori pays practically nothing in rates and taxes, and becomes wealthy by merely squatting on the ground and letting noxv»us weeds grow over some of the best land in the North Island. He nec l not worry about to-morrow, for the extension of the railways and roads and the solid hard work of the white settler is steadily piling up millions of pounds in land values for him to enjoy. The public has not yet- realised what the profitable occupation of the Native lands would mean to New Zealand. The 5J million acres of land on which the Maoris run their quarter of a million sheep, taken by and large, is fair average North Island country . If there are poor blocks, there are also exceptionallv fertile blocks.

Room for 2,700,000 More Sheep.

The North Island has an area of 28.459,520 acres, and the 5l million acres which, as shown above, are in the hands of a comparatively small group of Maoris, represent just about one-fifth of the total. The Year Book for 1910, p. 500, shows that there are 12,193,211 sheep in the North Island. The only figures as to Maori sheep give the Native flocks as they were in 1906, when they totalled 252,000 sheep. Since that date the number of European-owned sheep in the North Island has increased by one-fifth, so, for the purpose of making a rough comparison, we will suppose an equal increase in

the Maori flocks, bringing their total up to 300,000. The position then works out that on the European four-fifths of the North Island are over 12,000,000 sheep. It follows—assuming the soil to be the same mixture of good, bad, and indifferent in each fifth of the island—that with average European farming there would be 3,000,000 sheep to each fifth.

Maori flocks of 300,000 sheep, therefore, mean that one-tenth of the Native land is stocked, and nine-tenths is empty.

The profitable occupation of the Native lands would give an enormous impetus to the trade and commercial prosperity of the whole of the Dominion. It is far and away the most important problem that confronts New Zealand statesmanship at the present day.

What Might Be. The four-fifths of the North Island that is occupied by settlers has, according to the last YearBook, a total overseas trade of £21,580,226. On this basis the occupation of the remaining fifth of the island would mean an increase, pro rata, of £5,300,000 in the Dominion’s trade. This is nearly three-quarters of the whole overseas trade passing through Wellington, and it is greater than the whole of the import and exporttrade of Lyttelton, the principal port of one of the most prosperous provinces of New Zealand. As the figures in this article may be challenged by the advocate® of

the “taihoa” policy in Native lands, the authority for them haa been given in eveiry instance.

How little concerned the Government is to provide the publie I with information regarding the ' Native lands may be gathered front the fact that in the late sit volume of Government statistics, in an; index of 600 entries, there is not one solitary reference to Native lands. The reports of Sir James Carroll’s own department, moreover, give no comprehensive statement of the position in any form. There are a few scrappy papers relating to the transactions of this board and that, but of Native lands as a whole the public is told nothing whatever. Not for the Poor Man.

The Native lands are not for the poor man to settle on under the present “Liberal” Administration. | Before Native land can be purchased under present conditions endless expensive legal proceedings are necessary. The wealthy speculators can afford this but it is quite out of the question for the working settler who is looking for a holding to take in hand. What is wanted in connection with the Native land problem is to send out surveyors to mark out the land that the Maoris are actually using to carry stock on, etc. All the idle land could be resumed by the Crown at a reasonable valuation, and on such a basis not to infringe the rights guaranteed to the Natives. The Maori claims equal rights with the European under the Treaty of Waitangi, but he has never sought to bear JJje liabilities that go with those rights. If the Maori landowner, for instance, had to pay up what he owes in arrears of rates on his land he simply could not hold it. After the Crown has resumed the land it could be cut and treated as ordinary Crown land available for settlement. The net revenue from it, however, should be paid into a trust fund for the benefit of the Maori owners, whose titles could be investigated in the Native Land Courts at any time during the next fifty or hundred years without in any way blocking the progress of New Zealand. To ascertain the title first, and then open the land for lease or purchase afterwards is to waste years needlessly. An Extraordinary Record,

Sir James Carroll has been in the Ministry nineteen years, and has been Native Minister for over ten years. He is still talking of what he is going to do to-morrow. Hie record for yesterday is probably the most extraordinary in the hisrtory of New Zealand. Like the House of Lords in the ballad, he has done nothing, and done it very well indeed.

The thing for the public to remember is that keeping the Government in power means in practice

1. A stagnation of land settlement by the blocking of access to idle Maori land

2. The production of enormous crops of noxious weeds on vastareas of the North Island.

3. An ultimate huge expenditure in buying the Maori land at an enhanced value entirely due to European industry.

From the figures given above it would appear that during the thirteen years from 1895 to 1908 the Native lands have increased ia value by 8/ millions sterling.

What Sir J. Carroll Costs. Thus while Sir James Carroll sits down in his office chair anti waits for to-morrow, a tremendous bill is piling up that someone will ultimately have to pay. Under this one head alone Sir James Carroll, besides his salary, allowances, etc., has been costing New Zealand :—

£653,000 a year. £54,000 a month. £12,500 a week. £lBOO a day. £75 an hour. 25/- a minute. Next time you hear the Native Minister delivering one of those orations in which he tells you what fine fellows he and his colleagues are, you can amuse yourself by reflecting that the bill is piling merrily up, and that between the beginning an end of a two-hour speech £l5O has gone.