PUBLIC TRUSTEE'S OPINION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 4 September 1912, Page 5

PUBLIC TRUSTEE'S OPINION

[By Telegraph— Special to Star.]

Th lr WELLINGTON, Sep. 3. /The Public Trustee, in his annual leport to Parliament, points out that the question whether those lessees who did not convert within the time limited by statute should now be given an oppoitumty to do so had been enquired into by a Commission, which thought that the natives should not be deprived of an opportunity of obtaining occupation ->f the land by outbidding the present Jesses. It must be remembreed, however (he says) that the lands are in a high state of cultivation, the result of capital, industry, and skill expen led through a long course of years! The natives w,ll profit little by the bare ught to bid unless they possess both money to pay for improvements and outgoings, and the ability to maintain the 'and at its present standard. The probab c result, therefore, in most cases would be to unsettle the lessee without benefiting the native.