A MAORI CHIEF.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8823, 15 March 1909, Page 5

A MAORI CHIEF.

TALKS ABOUT USING A RIFLE

(Peb Pbess Association.) AUCKLAND, March 12. An interesting description of the conditions at present aifecting native land, and especially the timber clad blocks in the middle of the North Island, has been obtained from Mr A. H Vile a member of.the WellingtonEducation Board, who has just reached Auckland after a tour through the Island, a number of facts having been given him in conversation with the well-known Maori chief, Te Heuheu Tukino, at Tokaanu. . " Sawmilling operations are, said Mr Vile, "being conducted vigorously in the country extending onboth sides of the Main Trunk line, although the slump in the timber trade has resulted in one or two mills cloemg down. Those belonging to large comI panies are turning out from .Io,UUU to 40,000 feet of timber a day. J. he natives appear to be doing very well out of the land itself, as they are getting £10 an acre as royalty on the bush. One family alone has 60,0UU acres bearing totara, matai, nrau, and kahikatea, and one native in the North Island is said to be netting £3000 a year in royalties on timber. They are paid 2s per 100 superficial feet of totara, 10d for matai, 8d for rmiu, and 6d for kahikatea. It is expected that a company with a very extensive capital-will be floated shortly to take up a large block of land, it being understood that a" considerable portion of the capital will be subscribed in the Old Country. Te Heuheu is very emphatic," Mr Vile continued, "about the natives receiving the same rights as Europeans. 'We are going, he said to me, ' to make an emphatic demand in April* and if the Government does not give us what we ask, we will shoot them.' "