King Country Chronicle. Wednesday, August 2, 1939. NATIVE RATING.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4818, 2 August 1939, Page 4

King Country Chronicle. Wednesday, August 2, 1939. NATIVE RATING.

Strong support will be found from this area for the remit on the native rating question adopted at the Counties' Conference in Wellington last week, as this district is one of the most affected by the inability of the County Councils to collect native i rates. In the Waitonio County, for instance, the total native rates struck annually are £4454 on 106,754 acres of. native land with an unimproved value of £128,591, but during the past three years the collections have averaged less than £l5O. Properly administered, the first clause of the remit carried would appear to give opportunity for dealing with each case on its merits. At present, of course, native rates are legally collectable, but the fact that the rates cannot be registered against the land has made a farce of that legislation. Good results should follow the adopting of the proposals providing that the Native Department takes a reasonable view of the matter, recognising that though in quite a number of instances the natives will have to be protected, where they own good, or potentially good, land the Maoris should pay their share of the road and drainage works that have given their land an unimproved value. Amongst those results would be a fuller recognition of the value of the native development scheme which, though Maori leaders see in it practically the salvation of the race, the Maoris in the King Country and the Waikato have not favoured nearly so much as their East Coast brethren. . However, already the growth of this movement in this County has in the aggregate been very considerable—a total of 12,352 acres of land are now controlled by the Native Department, comprising areas occupied by individual natives and the Mahoenui development scheme of 6252 acres. The principle adopted by the Counties' Association for the proposed rating of these areas is the same as has been advocated by the Waitomo County Council, the granting of concessions in the initial stages of development, increasing to

full payments on the land becoming fully productive. Such a request appears very reasonable. Actually the development work causes much use and wear and tear of roads during the early stages of development, but the desirability of bringing good native land, much of which in this district is now almost useless to its owners, to a state of productivity is one that must be encouraged. Once in full .production, as with the Mahoenui scheme at present, the rates should be just as much a charge as in respect of any privately owned areas. The Mahoenui scheme, where work has been in progress for many years, has now 3600 acres developed, and the results of the work have been most encouraging. The stock carried, according to figures recently tendered the Minister of Agriculture, was 4195" sheep, 661 run cattle, 52 dairy cows, 17 horses, and it produced 61 bales of wool. However, of the annual rates of 1!296 due, only £25 have been paid during the past four years, these haying come from timber royalties. Other areas can be quoted—Oparure scheme, 603 acres, 55 dairy cows, 58 run cattle, 204 ewes, 140 dry sheep; Pio Pio scheme, 1524 acres, 42 dairy cows, 82 run cattle, 1430 breeding ewes and 370 dry sheep; Waitomo scheme, 98 dairy cows, 43 other dairy stock, 67 run cattle, 475 ewes and 192 dry sheep. Development has started later than at Mahoenui in these instances, and the results while speaking loudly for the success of the native development scheme, also demonstrate that in all fairness provision could be made for rates. In the past couple of years rates have been met on lands originally freeholded, a Ngapaenga property and the highly productive Te Kuiti base farm. The final clause in the Counties' Association's resolution also follows the lines always urged by the County Council, that the Government and not only the residents of a particular area, should help in meeting the cost of preventing undue hardship to Maoris through the payment of rates. It is to be sincerely hoped that the seriousness of the native rating position will be brought home to the Government.