VERY TELLING SPEECH

Northern Advocate, 8 November 1934, Page 6

VERY TELLING SPEECH

STOCK OPERATIONS. THE ILES PURCHASE. IMPUTATIONS SCORNED. [From Our Parliamentary Special .] WELLINGTON. This Day. Commanding and holding the attention of the House of. Representatives for over an hour and a half yesterday afternoon, Sir Apirana -Ngata, speaking with little emotion but with intensity and a wide range of language, examined the charges which had been made against him, and taking them seriatim, denied them, using evidence which was not contained in the commission’s report to support his contention that he was not guilty of anything but a burning desire to save his own race. In dignified mien he told of his efforts and attempts to guide his people into paths of economic independence. It was a speech which made a deep impression on all who heard it, anct such was the effect that, in the prosaic and non-emotional atmosphere of the New Zealand Parliament, members on both sides of the House at the close could not withhold applause.

Scorning the imputation that he had obtained “rake-offs” from transactions, Sir Apirana dealt at considerable length with the details of land purchases and stogk dealings referred to in the Native Commission’s report. “I have been farming for 30 years, and I have made it a practice throughout that time never to touch commission on stock,” he said. The finger of suspicion had been pointed at the Native Minister having been mixed up in certain sheep and stock transactions, said Sir Apirana, and there was the suggestion that he had benefited financially through them. He referred to the lies purchase, and stock transactions with Wilson and two companies in Waiapu. A return which/had been compiled showed that, in spite of 300 miles of difficult country • covered in driving them to Rotorua, out of a total of 12,000 sheep which had been moved around by Maori drovers, only 12 had been lost. A Government member: “You are tc be congratulated.” “From first to last, although tens of thousands of sheep were handled,” he continued, “the Waiapu Farmers’ Company and the Ngati-Porou Dairy Company in no case charged commission, either to the department or to the stock owners. If any credit were due, it should be ascribed to the two institutions which are being condemned because the ex-Native Minister was the chairman of them and because they were called companies. Had they been called tribal organisations, nothing would have been said. .It is a wonder to me they were not connected in the' rumour with the McArthur Group, and added to the proscribed list.”

Sir Apirana traversed the history of the purchase of bulls from Wilson at length, commenting in passing that “the rotten thing: about this is that all the defence was placed before the commission, and the commission disbelieved it.. It looks, like squealing to 'put it before the House,” he added. “It does not sound sporting, 'but if I give some of the details the House might consider the story worth believing.” Practical knowledge of farming requirements had caused him 1 to worry about a supply of bulls for the schemes throughout New ZealandNorth Auckland among others. Mainly because the quality was not available, and there were difficulties of transport, it was not possible to obtain bulls in North Auckland, and an attempt had been made to insinuate that the Minister, although he knew that Findlay, the supervisor, wanted to buy in the Waikato at £lO 10/ a head, had over-ruled that officer in favour of purchase at £ls 15/. Sir Apirana said he had sought to show the commission that at the point he decided that Wilson should buy he did not know Findlay had his eye on bulls in the Waikato at £lO 10/. Had that been known, was it conceivable that he, as Minister, would have directed the purchase to be made at £ls 15/?

In reply to Mr Semple, the Minister said he had never been interested in what Wilson made out of stock transactions. If Wilson had located an animal at £2, when the average price in the district was £3 10/, who was to deny him his profit? Dealing with the question inferentially raisbd as to what ’‘cut” the Minister got out of the transactions, he said the commission had gone through books and cheque butts, and had found nothing. “They could find nothing,” he declared. “Yes, ■ the question in the mind of some was, ‘What did the Minister get out of it?’ ” . Dealing with the lies purchase, the Minister said in that case the finger of suspicion was not pointed so much at him, but it might be on the files. The lies transaction was condemned 12 months afterwards, but if there were fools over that transaction, the first was the president of the board, the second was the Under-Secretary of Native Affairs, and the third the Native Minister. Looking back at the transaction now, the lies purchase could not be defended. INTERCHANGE OF VISITS. BENEFITS CLAIMED. [From. Our Parliamentary Special.'} WELLINGTON, This Day. Expenditure on the interchange of visits between isolated Maori tribes was defended by Sir Apirana Ngata in the course of his speech in the House of Representatives yesterday, on the ground that the meeting of representatives of different branches of the race was a big factor in the destruction of tribal barrier's. The Minister said he was rather sur prised that the term “joy ride” had not been used in connection with inter-tribal visits. Had Maoris walked or travelled by horse, nothing would have been said, apart from comments on the waste of food and entertainments during the tour.

As illustrating the value placed by the tribes on interchanges of visits, Sir Apirana recalled one instance. There was a wall between two particular tribes, erected out of all the ills that arose from misunderstanding and isolation. Peace, ' however, was made for over 100 years. It had rankled in the minds of one tribe that its ancestors had had their heads shot off by the. forbears of the other. Those tribes were now reconciled. Visits, apart from enabling psychological difficulties to be overcome, permitted the leading men from one district to see the standard of work for the prosecution of development maintained in another, and thus assist in the creation of the correct atmosphere schemes.

“In my opinion,” Sir Apirana added, “the Maori Purposes Fund is a legitimate fund out of which to assist the promotion of unity among the tribes and the breaking down of tribal barriers, because the latter are real.”