NATIVE RATING PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22215, 16 September 1935, Page 12

NATIVE RATING PROBLEM

REQUEST TO GOVERNMENT RELIEF SOUGHT BY COUNTY [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] TE KUJTI. Sunday "I think that the time has come when we should make a protest against the unreasonable delay of the Government in dealing with the native rating problem," said Mr. W. A. Lee, chairman of the Waitomo County Council, at the meeting of that body on Friday. "Repeatedly we have been informed by Ministers of the Crown that this matter would be considered so as to give relief to tho counties affected. On several occasions during the last I*2 months this matter has been placed before the Ministers, and on each occasion the reply was that the Government anticipated going into tho matter fully."

If the Maori had to have assistance—and Mr. Lee considered he would have to have assistance —to make his lands productive, then the problem should be borne as a national burden, and not by those ratepayers in whose counties the Maoris happened to live. When in 1928 the compromise was made, the Government recognised its responsibility and promised to bring the natives on the roll inside three or four years. The depression made this impossible, and now the time had come when the burden should bo carried by tho whole Dominion. Each member of tho council spoke supporting the chairman's attitude, and on his suggestion it was decided to write to the Prime Minister, Mr. Forbes, pointing out that he had promised to go into the matter, and contending tnat some relief should be given. It was also decided to write to the local bodies in Auckland and Hawke's Bay affected by this problem asking them to make similar representations.