THE NATIVE LANDS COMMISSION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 22 April 1907, Page 4

THE NATIVE LANDS COMMISSION.

WELLINGTON, Sunday. Sir Robert Stout and Mr Ngata, M.H.R., the Native Lands Commissioners, have forwarded to the Government two interim reports on the investigations they have lately completed concerning Nativo Lands in the Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay districts. The conclusion they come to is that the mode of dealing with Native lands in the past has not been beneficial to the natives, nor to tho Europeans desiring to obtain land for settlement, nor to the State. With reference to the Waimarama block, they recommend that the Government, which has already pur* cha.-jed 700 Q. acres for European settlement, should make further purchaseis ; that part of the land should be divided among certain native claimants that the daughter of the original lessee should bo allowed to lease 4000 acres at 7s an acre ; and that the area assigned to Arini Donnelly should be increased to 3458 acres. The accounts of the original lesr-ees showed that during the last 13 years the lessees made a profit only in the last three years.