INDIGENT MAORIS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22464, 7 July 1936, Page 13

INDIGENT MAORIS

PROVIDING ASSISTANCE AGED PEOPLE AND WIDOWS [BY TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT J GTS BORNE, Monday Provision for assisting indigent Maoris who have no other source of income at present has been made by the Tairawhiti Maori Land Board within certain defined limits. In pursuance of the schcfne adopted, potatoes are being made available to families in Poverty Bay and on the East Coast whose need is proved to be the greatest. In many instances the families represent people outside the scope of the employment and sustenance legislation. There are many cases of women with families who have been left without bread-winners, and who consequently do not benefit from the distribution ol sustenance moneys, which are limited to possible wage-earners. Another type or case which conies witlun the scope ol the I'airawhiti Board's scheme, and which has been the subject ol much discussion in native gatherings recently, is represented by the elderly Maori who, though qualitied by years lor the oldage pension, is barred lrom that benefit by possession ol land. Much of the land held by Maoris has little actual producing value, and there are many cases in which an elderly native is credited with substantial possessions, yet ho remains a pauper because his land produces no income. A case dealt with recently by Land Board officers illustrates some of the difficulties under which indigent Maoris are labouring. The applicant for assistance was a native of over 70 years, who had been refused the old-age pension owing to his being classed as a landed Maori. His land interests are centred in a block on which development work is progressing, and from which the profits are understood to be quite substantial. These profits are not yet being distributed to the owners of the land, however, being absorbed instead in repaying advances made by the State to promote the development scheme. Steps toward having the existing development legislation amended to permit of proportional payments from the profits of development schemes to owners of blocks, have been instituted. Without such aid as the Maori Land Board is offering at present, however, old people and women left without wage-earners to care for them would be in a precarious position for the time I being.