MAORI LAND SCHEME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21639, 3 November 1933, Page 10

MAORI LAND SCHEME

SETTLEMENT PROPOSALS AREAS IN KING COUNTRY CONFERENCE OF LOCAL BODIES [liV TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT ] TIC KUITI, Thursday A conference of local bodies lias boon called for to-morrow to consider proposals concerning .Maori land leases. The conference. will be presided over by the Mayor, .Mr. W. J. Broadfoot, M.P. T he proposals to be placed before the conference are that all native lands be tabulated and graded into three .separate divisions, the first to comprise and include all land occupied and used by natives in a productive capacity, the second such oilier land as can be profitably worked and is suitable for settlement, and the third to include such balance of steep, broken and other land unsuitable for settlement, but which may be used for tree-planting or for scenic or other purposes. It is also proposed that all native land so graduated bo vested in the Maori Land Board for that district, with a fresh economic valuation determined on the basis of the average prices of primary products over a period of the past seven years. For this purpose it is proposed that a special Valuation and Purchase Board be set up, to consist of three members, one to represent the native owners, 0110 to represent the European lessees and a third to represent the State departments interested. | Further proposals are: —"'1 hat all I the land graduated, subdivided and ! valued be offered by ballot to deserving settlers of both races on a deferred payment system, with interest and sinking fund spread over a period of ...3 1-3 years; that, where lands are held under an existing lease, there shall be a just conservation of the interest of the lessor and the lessee with a view to the lessee securing pre-emptive rights of acquiring his homestead and improvements, with a limited area sufficient to supply a comfortable living. "That all subdivisional and other fees and costs pertaining thereto shall be added to the land, such charge to be included in determining' the economic valuation of the separate holdings; that conditions of occupation and settlement be the payment of one half-yearly instalment of interest and principal to the> registrar of the Maori Land Board, such money to be held in trust by the board on behalf of the native owner of the area so occupied." So far as rating is concerned, it is proposed that the land classed in the first division should become immediately responsible for rates, that in the second responsible immediately on selection, and that in the third exempt from rates, any income derived from this land to be allocated to*a special hospital and charitable aid fund for the sustenance of sick and indigent native people.