MAORIS’ ATTITUDE

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXX, Issue 4844, 12 May 1936, Page 4

MAORIS’ ATTITUDE

AGAINST LIQUOR LICENSES IN KING COUNTRY. KING KOROKI’S RELATIVES. Four leading Maori chiefs of the Maniapoto tribe have been in Wellington during the past week on an important mission. They journeyed down from the King Country for the purpose of giving evidence before the Native Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives as a protest against a petition favouring the granting of hotel licenses to leading King Country townships. The Maori visitors to the city were: Whare Ilotu, Hori Tana, Wetenei Hotu and Tukorehu Apihi, and they were accompanied by Mr. Gabriel Elliott, who was representing the Rev. A. J. Seamer, Superintendent of Methodist Maori Missions. All the Maori chiefs were closely related to King Koroki, and Te Rewi Maniapoto, with whom the Ballance Government and the Hon. Mr. Brice, Native Minister of the day, arranged a pact in 1884 to the effect that if the Native chiefs agreed to allow the Main Trunk railway to pass through the KingCountry, which was at that time banned to European settlement, there would be no hotel licenses granted within that area in the event of settlement following the railway. Since that date there have been many petitions before Parliament in favour of the granting of hotel licences to such King Country townships as Te Kuiti. Taumarunui and Ohakune. These petitions have, however, been strenuously opposed with success by King Country elders and leaders of the Maniapoto tribe. Last year a European petition was presented as a result of resolutions favouring the licensing of hotels, passed by local bodies in the leading centres. When that petition was presented by the member for Waitomo, Mr. W. J. Broadfoot, he asked leave to withdraw it after it had been referred to the Native Affairs Committee. In lieu of that a petition was presented by some 70 Native people,, scattered throughout the King Country. That petition was before the present session of Parliament, and was referred to the Native Affairs Committee. Since the election of the Labour Government there have been persistent rumours abroad throughout the King Country that there was a possibility of licenses for the sale of liquor being granted to the two Government institutions in that area—the Waitomo Hostel and the Chateau Tongariro.