MAIN TRUNK LINE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3448, 22 November 1932, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK LINE

OPPOSITION OF MAORI KING. COMMENT OF 50 YEARS AGO. Dealing with the opposition of the Maoris to the Main Trunk line through the King Country, the Wellington Post made the following comment 50 years ago. “Those rather obtuse persons who seem to imagine that Tawhiao’s refusal to accept Mr. Bryce’s handsome offer means the permanent shutting up of the King Country, and the stoppage for an indefinite period of any further extension of the AucklandWellington railway southward from Te Awamutu, well, if we mistake not, find themselves greatly deceived. It seems to us that matters have now reached a stage when the only negotiations needed are the ordinary ones which pass between the Government and the proprietors of any land which is for sale, or through which a line is to pass. If the Native land-owners are personally willing to sell, they ought to be enabled to do so without any interference on the ground of antiquated savage prejudices or superstitions. If they object to a railway traversing their lands, that ought to be no more insuperable difficulty than a similar objection on the part of a European. There is a legal mode of procedure available, and the North Island has a right to demand that its progress shall no longer be delayed by weak concession to illegal and treasonable pretensions. Mr. Bryce is armed with a potent pacificator in the Amnesty Act and the various Native Acts passed last session. It will he strange indeed if with those he is unable to secure the co-operation of a large proportion of the Northern Maoris, and if the minority detest progress and prefer savagery, they will have to subordinate their preferences to the general good and 'lump’ what they do not like. We believe that the Government are now quite strong enough to ignore Kingism altogether in dealing with the' Northern Natives, and we shall be much surprised if some course such as that above indicated is not followed out.”