THE FARMERS' UNION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19148, 14 October 1925, Page 15

THE FARMERS' UNION.

PAYMENT FOR NATIVE LAND. DEFERRED SYSTEM WANTED. The Auckland provincial executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union met last evening, the chairman, Mr. 0. C. Munro, p residing. A letter was received from tho Minister for Native Affairs, in response to a request from the Whangarei sub-provincial executive, that purchasers of rural native lands should be allowed to pay on the, deferred-payment system. This system was adopted for the disposal of native township lands. The Minister replied that native townships were under a special Act and regulations. The Maoris always required cash for their interests and it was hopeless to attempt to buy on any other terms. Whether the lessees of native land could buy or not depended entirely upon the Ma,oris being agreeable to sell to the Crown on their behalf. If a. system of deferred-payment were to be applied and taken advantage of by lessees of native lands it would be difficult to provide money for the purchase of such lease(hdlds as the amount which must be paid' out to the natives on purchase of their interests in the first place mustrun into a huge sum, which could not be recovered immediately under a system of deferred-payments. It was regretted that an amendment to the Native Land Act as suggested could not be considered. It was decided to forward the correspondence t-o the Whangarei sub-provin-cial executive. The provincial executive, was requested by the Waikato sub-provincial executive to discuss ways and means of assisting the movement for increasing trade within the Empire. A remit on the matter was previously discussed by the executive when the opinion was expressed that the best means of accomplishing the object would be bv lowering tho tariff. The letter was formally received.