NATIVE LANDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 30 September 1936, Page 10

NATIVE LANDS

progress of development. INCREASE IN PRODUCTION. WELLINGTON, Sept. 30. A year of satisfactory progress m the development and settlement of native lands is recorded in the report of the Board of Native Affaiis for the 12 months ended March 31 last, which was presented m the House of Representatives yesterday by the Prime Minister (lit. Hon. M. J. Savage), who is chairman of the board in his capacity as Minister of Native Affairs. The outstanding feature of the year’s activities, states the report, was the marked increase in the volume of production both from the dairying and pastoral operations of the State development schemes controlled by the board. Revenue receipts from butterfat, wool, live stock, and oNier produce realised £129,787 as compared with £79,215 for the previous season —an increase of 63.8 per cent. There were to-day 73 State schemes in the North Island and three in the South Island for settlement of native lands. These schemes embraced a total area of 668,885 acres, of which 161,941 acres were in various stages of development. The number of individual units already established at March 31 last was 1388, and it was estimated that these settlers, combined with share milkers, farm hands, and other workers, supported a total population of 11,023 dependants. The policy of the board was to utilise wherever possible unemployment funds placed at its disposal in subsidising labour costs on the land development schemes now in operation, and thus direct the services of Maoris to works of a reproductive nature. Where the settlers were already established on these schemes but still required assistance, seasonal conditions were met by suitable relief grants which were expended in employing them on their own farms.

Failing work on development schemes every effort was made to place Maoris on privately-owned native lands in which the department was directly interested as mortgagee, or on other native lands which might be profitably improved. By means of the contract system £119,891 was expended on these purposes during 1935-36 out of grants from the Labour Department (late Unemployment Board), and this extraneous assistance considerably accelerated the progress of land development besides affording appropriate work for over 3000 Natives. “The majority of the Natives whose lands are being developed or improved under tho aegis of the department are keenly interested in the success ol the schemes established for their benefit and arc striving to become independent farmers,” states the report. In the arduous task of breaking in virgin country they have already shown a capacity for sustained effort under adverse conditions, and now that the productive stage is being reached there is every reason to believe that they will progress under careful and sympathetic supervision. “The employment of tribal leaders wherever possible as foremen of the various schemes has proved a wise move, and the goodwill and co-opera-tion of men and women of hereditary rank have been vital factors in furthering this new enterprise. Tho impact of Western civilisation has wrought many changes in the communal system of ancient Maoridom, but tho influence, tho prestige, the man a of chieftainship is still a dominant force, and to-day the recognised leaders of the people are united in their desire to emulate their European neighbours in the art of agriculture.