IN THE UREWERA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16205, 15 April 1916, Page 8

IN THE UREWERA.

SETTLEMENT OF COUNTRY.

PURCHASE BY GOVERNMENT.

MAORI CO-OPERATION SOUGHT.

[BT TELEGRAPH,— reporter. J Rotorua, Friday. Is* the course of his speech at Ruatoki. on the occasion of the christening of a new meeting-house, the Hon. W. H. Herries, Minister for Native Affairs, dealt with th. question of tho Tuhoe people's land. It was naturally a matter upon which they desired to know the intentions of the Government. It was useless to I denjj that throughout the country there was among pakehas a desire that the Urewera Country should be roaded and settled. The King Country and the west coast settlement reserves in Taranaki were examples of the benefit arising from settlement. In those districts the Government had not had to confiscate any lands since the great war, and he (Mr. Herries) could, as Native Minister, tell his hearers that the Government would not confiscate any of the Tuhoe Country Ho was not going to be a murderer of land, as Rua had been a murderer of people, but ho would ask them to assist him in his desire to show the people of New Zealand that there was a . way of settling this country without resorting to confiscation. He therefore asked them to assist him in purchasing, at a fair price, the interests of those natives who wanted to sell land. While he asked for this assistance, he would point out that' those who did not want to sell could trust the Government to deal fairly with them and safeguard their interests.