NATIVE LAND AMENDMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21345, 21 November 1932, Page 8

NATIVE LAND AMENDMENT

The Native Land Amendment Bill appears to embody the principal recommendations of the National Expenditure Adjustment Commission, but there are features in it which suggest that a very close legal scrutiny should be made by members of Parliament who are anxious to see a clear-cut plan of- reorganisation effected. For example, the Minister says it has not been found possible to adopt the commission s recommendations regarding the East Coast Commissioner. Parliament should demand the reasons in detail. The investigating tribunal affirmed that any features peculiar to the East Coast trust lands could be embodied in the legislation governing the trust, but that care must be taken to ensure that in the event of losses the Consolidated Fund is not implicated. One part of a report which proved the necessity of prompt measures for a new system of control cannot be dismissed in a few words, particularly in view of the fact that Sir Apirana Ngata, although in charge of the bill, appears to give grudging support to some of its proposals. He states that by some of its clauses a check will be placed upon the development of native lands for which Parliament must accept the responsibility. If it does its duty Parliament will certainly accept the responsibility without any hesitation. Owing to the reckless extravagance of the past it is of the highest importance that there should be this check in the interests of the Maori as well as of the taxpayer. In such an activity the best policy is one that makes haste slowly. For reasons of which the Minister is fully aware, but has never expressed, the task of turning the Maori into a farmer is not to bo achieved by scattering money upon ill-considered schemes all over the oountry. The central principle of the bill lies in the creation of a Native Land Settlement Board controlling all finance. Its existence should safeguard the Consolidated Fund against the. extraordinary raids upon it which legislation of the past has permitted. Its personnel is too official however. There should be stronger representation of the practical civilian.