WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8529, 1 April 1891, Page 5

WELLINGTON NEWS NOTES.

[by telegraph.— correspondent.] ' Wellington, Tuesday. : AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES. I understand that it is the intention of the Government, with as little delay as possible, to carry out the recommendations of the Industries Committee which sat last session in respect of grading produce in colonial ports which is intended for the foreign market. The difficulty, I learn, hitherto has been found in obtaining the services of experts who would have the confidenccof the shippers, but the produce for export is so multifarious that an expert in one kind of produce (such as dairy produce) would nob necessarily be qualified to grade other kinds of produce, such, for example, as fruit. Another difficulty is found in the fact that only some steamers had the necessary cool chamber accommodation, but this difficulty will very shortly disappear. The whole subject, I learn, will be discussed in Cabinet when Ministers reassemble in Wellington. NATIVE LAND POLICY. It is said to be a main feature in the new native legislation thatland may betaken over by the Government upon two-thirds of the native owners in number and value declaring their desire that the Native Minister should administer their land. In a case where the natives would express such a wish and the Government would accept the administration on their behalf, the land would be dealt with as Crown Land. It would be offered for lease upon the ordinary basis of valuation, and the native owners would receive the rent from the Government, each according to his individual interest. According to this arrangement the native owner would not under any circumstances comb in contact with the European lessee. Provision would be made in any new Act for leasing native land for the expenditure of the accrued rents for improvements with the consent of the parties to the lease. I cannot give any authority for the statement further than that it proceeds from a very respectable authority, and therefore may bo true with some modification as to details. The idea is by no means new. The question of the " leases on the West Coast will occupy a great deal of the time of the joint, committee which is to be re set up next session, and which already affords a good deal of experience on the subject. The new proposal, if it is seriously entertained, would probably, when embodied in a Parliamentary Bill, be referred to the Native Affairs Committee or the Joint Committee referred to.