THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1908. THE MAORI LAND BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13872, 5 October 1908, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1908. THE MAORI LAND BILL.

Of the making of Bills there is no end, whether for the prevention of strikes, the suppression of free speech, or the regulating of native lands. The sorrowful thing is that with all these Bills and enactments, and in spite of long speeches and stupendous reports, the Native Lands still continue to be locked up and the great problem of the North Island remains as unsolved as ever. The difficulty appears to be that there is quite no disposition on the part of the Government to do anything but make laws and inquiries and promises, with the inevitable result* that the years come and go and that measures are enacted and amended without affecting in the slightest degree the real situation. The latest Maori Land Bill, termed " the Maori Land Laws Amendment Bill," is said to be mainly a machinery Bill, and to be required in order to make more workable Bills which have been made of recent years, from which so much was expected and from i which so little has come. We are assured that itdoes not deal with _any vital principle, but one of its provisions strikes at the very heart of the only important concession to 'European settlers contained in the Native Land Settlement Act, 1907. In this Act it was provided, against the recommendation of the Native Lands Commission, that in disposing of -Surplus" land, the, JMaori" tad.

Board of the district • shall divide ib into two : parts approximately- equal, one of which parts shall be sold and the other part leased for the benefit of the native owners. The new Bill empowers the Government to authorise the division of this surplus land into other proportions, either for sale or lease, whenever equal division is impracticable or inexpedient. As there is no provision foxsafeguarding the averagely equal dividing of the " surplus " lands and as the Native Department is notoriously adverse to the European acquisition of Native Lands, excepting as tenantry, the effect of this amendment will be to defeat altogether the intention of Parliament and the wish of the country.

We do not question ; that there may be cases in which it would be inadvisable to cut in two every portion of " surplus " land. But it is. absolutely certain that there can be no Maori Land District in which it would be either " impracticable or in expedient" to divide the whole surplus area into two ha l *'"*" ''approximately equal.'' If this amendment is of a bona-fide character, intended to simplify the working of the Native Land Settlement Act of 1907, while leaving the principle therein contained-4hat half of all " surplus" Maori Land should be sold for European settlement and half retained under lease for future Maori . settlement—there can be no possible objection to a provision safeguarding this principle. It can very easily be provided that while the division of lands may be varied in individual cases, the division of all the surplus lands dealt with by a Board shall be approximately equal, both in area and value. Unless this is done we shall have little Native Land opened for free European settlement excepting those barren and sandy areas which have been so generously recommended for Government purchase by the Native Land Commission. Nor is this all We may amend laws and amend Bills as we like, but of what good is that unless we first amend administration. There are plenty^of surveyors in New Zealand, so many that our young professional men drift away to survey the most distant parts of the world, yet the Native Minister claims that there is a dearth of surveyors and advances this as the reason why Native Lands are generally quite unprepared for settlement. This is the latest proof of the character of our Native Lands Administration and justifies our con- | tention that nothing whatever will ■ be done to solve the Native Lands problem until the Government determines to have it solved. There is no matter more important to the progress of the North Island, yet our Northern members sit dumbly by while the ancient policy of ■" tallica'-' *f ules the Native Department.