NATIVE LAND BILL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15480, 11 December 1913, Page 9

NATIVE LAND BILL.

MINISTER IN REPLY.

NO TRUSTS VIOLATED.

THIRD READING CARRIED.

[BY TELEGIUrn.— CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Wednesday. The debate on the Native Land Bill was continued in the House of Representatives until the early hours of this morning.

Messrs. O. W. Russell (Avon) and H. G. Ell (Christchurch South) spoke in opposition to the Bill, and the debate was thus brought to 12.30 a.m., after which no new business can be taken.

The Minister for Native Affairs, the Hon. W. H. Herriea, began his speech in reply at 12.35 a.m. He said the bulk of the discussion had been directed against the West Coast Settlement Reserves Bill, which it was evidently intended to block, but that Bill was going through, even if the session lasted for another fortnight. He denied that the Hill gave any power I to filch or thieve land from the natives. Not an acre would be taken from the Maori except at fair valuation. The objection raised by Sir James Carroll was narrowed down to a question whether individual interests in vested lands could be purchased. This Bill gave the Maoris the i right to get their lands back into their own hands, for the cry everywhere by the Maoris was to deliver them from the Maori Land Boards. Tho holders of interests in native townships were equally anxious to be freed from the boards.

As to the Groymouth leases, the Native Affairs Committee had recommended that the leases should be purchased and resold to tho tenants, and he believed that the natives would be better off with debentures at 5 per cent, than with rents of 3J per cent. But ho was not going to persuade the Maoris to sell, and all he wanted WW the power to purchase if a native wanted to sell. He claimed that this Bill did- not violate tho trust of the West Coast reserves as much as the Ballance Act, which practically gave the fee simple to the PubliiK Trustee, and made the owners nothing" more than beneficiaries. There were safeguards in the Bill which would protect those natives who did not wish to sell. The opposition to the Bill had been engineered very largely from the Maori Conference, which had sat at Wellington. That conference was made up of strong party men. but at the same time he knew ho had a large body of Maori opinion behind him. He was receiving telegrams from natives in all parts of the Dominion, telling him to be strong, to put tho Bill through, and his name would bo called blessed.

The division was taken at 1.15 a.m., when the third reading was carried by 31 to 20. The Bill was then passed. The House rose at 1.28 a.m.