MAORI WELFARE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4952, 6 February 1937, Page 4

MAORI WELFARE.

During the visit of the Minister of Lands, Mr. Langstone, to North Auckland and Hawke’s Bay some shocking revelations were made of the living conditions of Maoris in these places. The Hapua Maori settlement comprises 400 natives and 70 families, and the conditions under which they were living were found to be appalling. It was stated that not one family was free from tuberculosis and that one child out of every four dies before reaching school age. The village is in an isolated position and this may account for the plight of the natives not being disclosed up to the present. It is not a lack of money that has been responsible for the plight of the people. Last year they had £IO,OOO at their disposal, of which sum the unemployment tax provided £BOOO. The whole is equivalent to £l6O a family. There cannot therefore be the excuse of poverty for such squalid conditions. When these natives prefer to live on tinned food to making use of the natural resources in their midst, then it is time that some action was taken by the Government of the day to make them realise that they must help themselves. It is not money that is wanted, but the will to live in a natural way. Some of natives in the North appealed to the Minister for more land. What has become of the various land settlement schemes that were started by Sir Apirana Ngata when he was Native Minister? A large amount of public money has been spent on these schemes, but it is doubtful if any of the Maoris have been settled on individual holdings. There is plenty of Maori lands available on which the owners can make a living for themselves, but until a scheme for consolidation of ownership is worked out, these lands will remain idle and a menace and burden to adjoining farmers. It is not a question of money or land that has brought about the present conditions of the Maoris in the North. It is a matter of education and guidance. Compassionate allowances are useless. Given a lead, these Maoris should be able to rehabilitate themselves, and the Government should lose no time in making plans for a compaign of self-help, scientifically directed for their benefit. In any such scheme, the help of the “educated” Maoris should be enlisted, and these might form a Maori Advisory Council.