NATIVE MEETING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1194, 18 January 1895, Page 11

NATIVE MEETING.

By Telegraph.—Oivn Correspondent.

Hastings, January 13.

The great Native meeting at Te Hauke is finished. Miss Makere Mihi Woatu, who occupied the chair at the final meet-; ing on Friday, said they found that all their lands were drifting from them to the Governments servants, or the people that the Government chose to put upon the lands. The men had endeavoured for a long time to do something, and now the women had formed themselves into a committee and were going to see what they could do in the matter. The following resolutions were carried : —“ 1. That we have nothing further to do with the Native Land Court. 2. That we cease selling lands. 3. That we stop the leasing of lands entirely. 4. That we allow no more surveys. 5. That any man, woman or child breaking the above rules shall be fined whatever the committee thinks fit. 6. That the parchment, which is to be signed by all the Natives of both islands, must be completed within this year, 1895, and that in accordance with the rule passed in 1892 every person signing the document must pay the sum of bne pound before the end of the year. I have had a good talk with several of the prominent chiefs, who attended the women’s meeting merely as spectators of course, and also with the women themselves ; and they seem to have thoroughly made up their minds on the subject of dealing with the land, but when I asked what they imagined they were going to do when all the selling and leasing were stopped, and with it their rents and incomes, they seemed rather in a fog, and the nearest answer I could get was, “ Wait and you will see.” Some of them seemed inclined to mop the floor with anybody who asked questions.