MAORI GRIEVANCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 122, 22 April 1940, Page 2

MAORI GRIEVANCE

COMPENSATION FOR LAND, SATISFACTION REQUIRED. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, April 21. Describing themselves as now desperate, South Island Maori leaders said yesterday that they felt that the Government’s failure to announce some satisfaction of the Ngaitahu land claim had marred the otherwise success! ul Centennial celebrations at Akaroa. They came to the celebrations expecting that the' Government would make some important and favourable announcement. The replies of the Ministers have kept them highly dissatisfied. They insist that settlement must he reached this week. South Island Maoris, they say, have waited for between 90 and 100 years for settlement of their claims for compensation for land confiscated by the British. Compensations have been paid to North Island tribes, hut successive Governments have failed to meet the claims of the South Island Maoris, though Government commissions have established the justice of them. “Here you will find before you all the principal leaders of the Ngaitahu people to make a request to you and to the Government,” said Chief Tcmairaki Taiaroa, of Taumutu, paramount elder of the South Island, in his address to tho Governor-General and Ministers. “They specially require,” Chief Taiaroa said, “that the resolution passed at the round table conference at which Hon. F. Langstonc presided in 1938 should bo given effect to. Under this resolution a sum of £12,500 a year was to he paid to the Ngaitahu for 30 years, thus giving effect to the recommendation of the commission which investigated compensation for confiscated land. The Maori people assembled here are hoping to receive from your Government some reply to the requests they have made about the Ngaitahu claim. “As you see, I am grey-haired. Since I was a hoy 1 have waited for the Ngaitahu claim to he attended to. You will see how long I have waited. My people are very anxious indeed that a: reply for or against he given us today.” Mr E. T. Tirikalcne, M.P.. said that deputation after deputation had taken the matter up, but the reply was always, “Wait a while.” The Maoris were now making a new application, at the beginning of another 100 years. ENG AGING ATT ENT I ON. Bishop Bennett (Maori Bishop of Ootearoa) associated himself with the statements of ‘Chief Taiaroa. The Prime Minister (Hon. P. Fraser) said that the claims of the South Island Maoris were engaging the attention of the Government at present. The Government was anxious that all differences should be smoothed away and relegated to tho remotest background of the history of both races, and that they should then march forward together on a greater scale than ever in the past. Hon. H. T. Armstrong asked whether the Maori claim to the land was really any greater than that of the pakcha. He asked where were the original owners of tho land, and who did really own the soil. The Government wanted Maori and pakeha to live side by 7 side as brothers, and would always treat the Maori and pakeha in all problems on an equal footing. The Government could not offer anything fairer than that. On that basis the claim would he given all the consideration it was entitled to. This closed the subject at the official ceremony,• hut South Island Maori leaders discussed the claim throughout the week-end. HURT DEEPLY. A statement was made by Mr P. H. Macdonald, leader of the Ngaitahu delegation to tho Ministers. “The Maori people are desperate now,” he said. “Particularly they are dissatisfied with, the reply of Hon. H. T. Armstrong, which has hurt us deeply. On this occasion, at least, we did hope for greater sympathy, especially because the spot on which the Minister spoke has been held sacred to the Maoris for nearly a century. “Furthermore, from the deliberations it appears that Ihe principle has been set up by previous Governments, and not only retained but intensified by the present Government, that-not so much the rights and wrongs of their cause as tho numerical strengths of the claimant tribes should determine grants made and consideration given.” In support of this statement, Mr Macdonald quoted the handling of the claims of other tribes. He 6aid that Commissioner Mantel], in a letter to the secretary of the imperial Government in 1856, clearly said that the Ngaitahu claim on the day tho agreement was signed in IS4B was worth £2,000,000. In the same letter lie said lie regretted that ne had been the channel through which Maoriland was obtained from the Maoris, which he considered the greatest crime committed under the British flag. Mr Macdonald said the Maoris were deeplv disappointed at the failure of the Government to mark the Centennial with an announcement of satisfaction of the claim. It had marred the celebrations, The Maori people had a right to demand settlement beforo tho celebrations were over.