MAORIS AND THE LAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13702, 19 March 1908, Page 6

MAORIS AND THE LAND.

WAHAROA CONFERENCE.

SPEECH BY THE GOVERNOR.

"SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW."

[BY TKLEGRArir..—SPECIAL I'ONDKXT.]

Hamii.Yox, Wednesday. A pictcbesque and interesting gathering of Maoris, was held at Waharoa to-day to bring under the notice of His Excellency the Governor and the Prime Minister the alleged grievances of the Maoris with regard to the confiscation of native lands. The vice-regal and Parliamentary party, which travelled to Waharoa by special train, consisted of Lord Plunket, Sir Joseph Ward, the Hon. .lames Carroll (Minister for Native Affairs), Messrs. Hone Heke, lienare Kaihau. and A. T. Xgata, M'.P.'s., Te Heuheu Tukina (a prominent Maori chief), and other representative men. When the party arrived at the Waharoa station they were met by representatives of the tribes assembled, and driven to where the meeting was to take place, at a Maori kainga, about two miles away. Here the Maoris were assembled ill force, and elaborate preparations had been made for the reception of the visitors. They were received by Teni Taingakawa, nephew of the chief Taingakawa, who. attired in native costume, escorted the party through an arch of evergreens, bearing the word "Haeremai," to the assembled Maoris, who greeted them with shouts of welcome, while the women, attired in picturesque costumes, performed a series of native exercises. A number of tents and marquees had been erected in a semi-circle at one side of the hamlet, and the visitors, were accommodated in a large building, open at the front.. The Maori men ranged themselves in the form of a crescent in front, and squatted down to wait patiently for the proceedings to begin. THE MAORIS' PETITION. There was a great gathering of the tribes, for a majority of the natives in the district appear to be firmly convinced that the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840, has been violated, and that they have thus been unfairly treated by the pakehas. The Ngaiterangi, from Tauranga, were there, and the Ngatiraukaw'a, from the country beyond Cambridge, were present in force. There were the men of Te Arawa, of the Rotorua district, and the Ngatimaru, from the Thames; Ngatirahiri,. from Te Aroha ; Ngatiwhatua (who were adherents of the king movement); Ngatimaniapoto, cf the King Country, and the Ngatihaua, the | local sub-tribe of the Waikato, Proceedings were opened by the presentation of an address of welcome to the Governor. The address stated that it was His Excellency's first visit to these tribal families of the Waikato tribe. After describing Lord Plunket respectively a.-; " Oh, the-Governor," " Our Distinguished Visitor,/' " Our Kotuku Rerengatabi" ("the bird of momentous appearance"), "Our Kownai Turangaora" (" the tree of abund--ance"), the address went on to refer to the Treaty of Waitangi. It stated: "It is upwards of 40 years since the separation of our lands Unjustly from us. This is the —unjustly. Not the slightest thing was done by the - law. to investigate the rights and the wrongs before this extreme measure fell. Why was it not tried by the law? Many representations- similar to this have been made to the Governors and the Governments...... Word, has.-been. received from the Governor that this grievance should receive careful consideration. When it reached the Government the reply came to us that they had ho-reply regarding this case. Therefore we now ex-press-our desire to. Your Excellency, name- i ly, that the lands of tlie%Y T aikato confiscated be returned to the people and families from i whom they wore taken by force of arms by the Government.; but there were many lands on the, island taken by force by confiscation,- for the wars of Taranaki and Tau- i ra.nga, and on the East Coast of the North j Island, which arc' in suspense, and no por- i tion of which has been considered or in- ! vestigated by the law." -■ - ■ The petition went on to state that the ! confiscation of the lands without a trial by j law of this exceedingly grave case, was i wrong. _ Why should food be weighed to determine its weights, and cloth be measured to find out its length in yards, and yet this great matterthe confiscation of the land—why was it not weighed to ascer- ! tain its weight-, or measured to ascertain its I length in feet? The food, also the timber, { also the cloth, are measured, why were the lands taken by confiscation for the war not measured? Therefore, we are justified in j our statements that it was unjust that these hostilities should fall upon our lands. '• Rather they should attack the Treaty of I Waitangi." The petitioners prayed the" Governor to personally forward or cause the petition to be delivered into the hands of the King. The petition was then presented with the address.

Tahanga Kavva, chief of the local tribe, addressed the Governor, and compared him to a. native bird which flew only occasionally." Our race is disappearing, and the lands are disappearing," said Tahanjja. "We ask you to try and save them. We have little to say. It is all embodied in the address presented to you." THE GOVERNOR'S REPLY. His Excellency, in the course of his reply, after thanking the Maoris for their address of welcome, said that when the Maoris had petitioned him previously he had ventured to give them some advice in. reply, saying that wlvether these things required settlement or not there were m;uiv other important things that the Maori's might do. They had asked him to repeat that advice to the tribe, and he would do so. The petition they had asked him to present to the King stated, among- other things, thai* the Treaty of Waitangiwa-s not being kept, and that the present laws of New Zealand were not in accordance with if, and that consequently the natives were rapidly becoming destitute. He (Lord Plunket) had also been informed that in case they did not get a satisfactory answer they intended to send Home a deputation to His Majesty the King. He did not at the present time propose to go into the. question' of the confiscation of lands, nor did he propose to speak only sympathetic words to them, though it would be very easy for him to do so. He would tell them the truth as it presented itself to him. First, as to the proposal to send Home a deputation to His Majesty the King. The oldei men among the tribe:-; would remember, that when previous native deputations Went to J( .er Majesty Queen Victoria they were invariably told that the affairs of the Maoris and Europeans in New Zealand concerned the Government of New Zealand, and not the Home authorities. They had been given constitutional government, and they must carry out that government themselves. Constitutional government was never interfered with. If the Maoris were 30 foolish as to send Home a deputation, that, was what would happen, and now as to tin: petition. It was; stated in the petition before him. and the one he hud received at Wellington, thai the Treaty of Waitangi was nut carried out as originally specified. That was perfectly true. No one denied it ; but times changed, and what was suitable at one period was not suitable at another. It was: a question of fair treatment, not of particular clauses. The New Zealand Government meant to do right by the Maori people, ft was one of the proudest boasts of the British Empire that it tried to treat the native races fairly. Some ot the laws the Maoris complained of might require correction or improvement. They might not always work out as they were intended, but he thought the natives would be much wiser in pressing upon the Government and their native members the necessity of endeavouring to improve wherever there was a fault, rather than make

[such an impossible demand as to have these laws repealed. He spoke not as a Governor, but as one who would like to be their friend. The Treaty of YVaitangi was ;< blessing in the earlier days, but it was becoming a great curse when they relied upon it altogether, instead of making, the most of their lands. There were tribes with plenty of land, and yet they were dying out. There were tribes who could not find a grievance, and yet they were dying out. His Excellency told his hearers She fable of the uog who dropped his piece of meat in the brook, and pointed his application of it by advising the Maoris not. to drop the substance for the shadow. There were other things equally as important for the .Maori as the Treaty of Waitangi. There was the question of modern education for Maori children, the teaching of agriculture in nil the native schools, it modern and better system of farming, and improved sanitation and drainage in Maori homes and villages, lie advised the head men, in eonclusion, not to think only of the Treaty of Waitangi and confiscated lands, but to think of what- good they might do their people in the present, and they would be benefiting their people, and doing themselves honour. SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER. The Prime Minister s;ud he wanted to impress upon them the constitutional position. It was only natural for them to try and get to a higher power than the Government where responsible government existed. He wanted to say a few words about the question of confiscating. The old Maoris would remember that they were warned that their lands would be confiscated if they were rebels. This was lie law of nations. The New Zealand Government of to-day was not responsible for whao had happened in the earlier day # s, but they took up the position as they found it. The Treaty of Waitangi said that the native lands .must be protected, and they were being protected. They must also not overlook the fact that many things were being done for the Maori which were not provided for in the treaty. The petition had raised a big question, and tjiey must recognise that when a big question was at stake the Home authorities were bound to send them to their own country. The whole position of the Maori trouble was involved in the question of Maori laud. If the .Maori were industrious and cultivated his laud assiduously, much of the trouble that he had piled up for himself would disappear. There, were four Maori representatives in the Lower House, and 'several in the Upper House, who were energetic and watchful in the native interests. There was every desire on the part of the Government and Parliament to have a practical settlement of the native land difficulty which had existed so long. They did not want to deprive the natives of a single acre of their land. Ho did not wish to prevent them approaching the English Government,in the matter, but he believed it would be labour in vain. The remedy was at their own doorin the Parliament of their country.

THE NATIVE MINISTER'S VIEWS.

The. Hon. Jas. Carroll dealt exhaustively with the petition, about ' which he said much misconception seemed to exist. While the spirit of the treaty had. in the main been adhered to, changes in the Jaw had of necessity been made from time to time, to meet existing conditions. However sincere the natives were in their petition their past dealings with Maori lands showed that they had not been consistent. In one breath they complained bitterly that their lands were slipping away from' them, and in the next they besieged'him with applications for the removal of restrictions in order that they might sell it. The Act of 1900, which was specially designed to protect their interests, and permitted leasing principally, did not meet with favour at their hands, the result being that a clause was inserted into the Act of 1905 to enable purchases to take place. Though in operation only a little more than a year, a great number of side's had taken place, and if this had gone on the natives would soon have been entirely without lands. He urged the natives to give tup squabbling among themselves, to unite in a common cause, to come down to reality with -the determination to educate themselves in dairy farming, sanitation, and other matters, and . they would not only provide their own material prosperity and that of their families, but they would remove from their doors all cause of complaint and would find many willing workers to assist them on the road of pro" gross. The present Government was very anxious that the natives should have every opportunity to cultivate and improve their lauds and only wanted some evidence from them that they desired to proceed on these lines. He advised them to make the most of the presence of the Native Land Commission, when it came among them. They could consult with the Commissioner in the open before all the people interested, and it would rest with them to show what they wanted done with their land:-. The Commissioner would then report, and the law would give effect thereto. Taingakawa brought the gathering to a close by remarking that he could not reply to what had been said, as the time was so short, but he would consider what had been spoken and give them an answer. The Ministerial party will stay at Hamilton to-night, and to-morrow " they will proceed to Ngaruawahia, where the Prime Minister will address another native slathering. In the afternoon Sir Joseph Ward will go on to Rotorua.