MAORI LANDS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6371, 20 November 1907, Page 8

MAORI LANDS.

'GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSALS. TO EE -MADE LAW THIS SESSION. BIEL BEFORE PARLIAMENT. Tho Hon. J. Carroll moved the second reading of the Native Land Settlement EKI in the House of Representatives ye.-,terday afternoon. Ho asked lion, members to devote their attention to the lands the subject of tho Act, and tho manner in which they were to be administered. The area covered by the Commission and governed by the immediate operations of the BUI was 556,731 acres. Tho Bill also proposed that all lands to bo reported on by the Commission within tho next twelve months should bo subject to this Act. The Native Affairs Committee inserted an amendment limiting the operations of (lie Bill to tho bunds already dealt with by the Commission, but lie proposed to ask tho House lo restore the original proposed and make tho Bill apply to all lands to be reported on within the next twelve months. In view of the clamant demand for the settlement of native lands, ho thought the Bill would commend itself to the House. He acknowledged the good work done by the Native Affairs Committee on the Bill, and thought they could como to a mutual agreement ux>on the amendments which had been made. Next session It would be necessary to have a consolidation of all tho native land Acts. There was n largo question yet untouched, and that was the interests of the aboriginal owners. In all of their efforts to pass legislation (£to as to give encouragement bo

settlement they had always studied the question from ono point of view—as to what they ought to do to satisfy the earth hunger and secure to the Crown largo areas of native lands for general settlement, but they had never yet made liny provision as to how they should deal with the balance of those lands and place the Alaoris on their own, and in a way whereby they would bo able •» como into lino with their European brethren, who had every facility in the way of land settlement. This was such a largo question that it must be held over until next session, but it must be dealt with then. Another very important feature of the Bill was that where tho Commission set apart land for public disposition by .sale the Crown had the right if it liked to take, the land at a price to bo.fixed by the Board and tho representatives of the Crown, and this land immediately became open for selection under tho land laws of the Dominion (including tho optional tenure). If tho operations of the Bill were allowed to extend to what the Commission might do within the next twelve months, an area of a million to a million wid a half acres of land would be made available. ' The sooner they were in sight of the settlement of such a large area, in view of the necessary delays in surveys and preparing the land for public disposition, the better it would.be for the settlement of those lands. There was every safeguard in this Bill so far as private dealings were concerned. The Government would strain every effort to put the Bill through this sc-ssion. OPPOSITION VIEWS.

Air Herriea questioned the advisableness of appointing one of the Judiciary Bench and a member of Parliament on Dig Commission. Ho said nothing against them personally—only against their opinions o.s publicly expressed. For that reason they had to approach this Bill not with a certain amount of suspicion but with a certain amount of antagonism. Under this Bill the native owners concerned were not to have a single say in the carrying out of these proposals, and they might just as well be in a lunatic asylum or minors. It was a policy of keeping tli6 natives in a shite of tutelage, and the native members only supported it because of the clamour for land. The Native Minister had assured them that this was only an instalment of the Government’s native land legislation, and that they would have more of it next year. Then, for goodness sake, let them confine this Bill to tho half-million acres already reported on. They ought not to give tho Government a blank cheque for th© future. The Native Department had become a "Byword throughout tho country for its slowness. It would bo a long time before any of these lands would bo made available for settlement if everything was to depend on that department. The Boards must be strengthened, otherwise there would be very little done between this and next session. A MEMBER OF THE COAfAIISSION. Air Ngata said, as a member of the Royal Commission on Native Lands, ho did not propose to vote on the second reading of the Bill. The only policy question in the Bill was as to what machinery should bo provided to bring these native lands into such a position. that they could bo readily dealt with for the purpose of general settlement: and Alaori settlement also.. Th© recommendations of tho Commission were that 316,000 acres should be made available for general settlement and 208.000 acres ! for Alaori uses; 66,000 acres for sale as i onposed to 230,000 acres for lease. The House would think that was an undue proportion. Atr Jennings: That shows the bias cf the Commission straight away. Mr Ngata; Of com so, the Commission was working without a policy. The House might say that the Commission was biased, but with ono exception, ?r the King Country, there was not ono block dealt with now recommended cither for sale or lease that the owners had not agreed to. The Alaori members had been driven into a corner by the process of legislation. Hitherto in tho past this question was viewed from tho standpoint of how much'land should bo made available for tho pakeha. Hero for tho first time in this Bill was the beginning of tho other policy—what should bo done for the Alaori? The time had come when they must ask themselves how much land the Alaori could ns©, and then it was for tho European to say what should be done with the balance. It was a wrong position to say how much tho pakeha should have, and that they did not care how much the Alnori got. He belonged to tho class of optimists who said that, given proper direction, titles, and perhaps than that given to the Europeans. who had the customs and habits of industry ingrained in them—a large proportion* of Maoris, more than conceived possible, wore anxious to farm thoir lands. Along the East Coast the Atn-oiis wore just as industrious as tho settlers of the Taranaki district. Tho recommendation of tho Royal Commission that tho Government should appoint instructors in farming to the Atcoris was not an idle one. It was ono that tho Government should sook to adopt, and any expenditure in that respect would not be grudged by members of the House. THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION. Air Massey said tho fault of the present unsatisfactory condition of affairs in connection with the Maori land question did not rest with Parliament, but with the leaders of tho Alaori race, of whom tho Native Afinister was one. who had stuck to the wretched communistic system of land tenure by which all their lands wore held in common. and industry was handicapped under such conditions. The Bill was satisfactory to a certain extent on tho principle that they ought to be thankful for small mercies, but to his mind it did not go far enough, and it would do nothing towards the solution of this difficulty. He objected to the personnel of tho *Boyal Commission. No member

of Parliament should receive emolument. 1 : that might affect his independence. Not one per cent, of the native people of this country knew the proposals contained in this Bill, and ho doubted very much if they would consent to them when they did know them. THE PREAUER. ! Sir Joseph Ward paid a tribute of recognition to the very intelligent speech delivered on this question by Air Ngata. Ho combated the Opposition theory that it; was wrong to appoint the Chief Justice and a member of Parliament on this Commission, for a review of what h::/l been done in New Zealand in the past (lid not justify tho opinions expressed, The Hawke’s Bay Commission ; of 3573 comprised Judge Richmond, Judge j Afanning, and two native assessors. £ir W illiam Russell was a member of the Federation Commission, and did the j loader of tho Opposition take exception jto that? No ono could find fault with I this Commission as constituted, nor with i the lack of publicity given to these prot posals, which were discussed throughout ; tho country during the recess. The people of tho North had been crying out to have the huge native land areas uuI locked for settlement, and it was an cxj traordinary thing that the member for Buy of Plenty not only moved before ! tho Native Affaire Committee to restrict j tho operations of the Commission by f eliminating the areas that might be dealt with by them during the next twelve j months, but confining their operations, as far as this Bill was concerned, to the | areas already dealt with by tho Com- ! mission. And yet the North Island had j been impressing upon representative men j for some years to unlock the native lands of the North both for the benefit of the Alaoris and Europeans. Would it not bo better in view of tho failures of tho past to lay down a departure upon a defined basis, providing for the natives first, and utilising the balance, half on freehold and half on leasehold tenure, for the use of European settlors? The committee, by an amendment to the Bill, had attempted to open the door to an infamous system to arise, by allowing tho Board to alienate any areas they liked. They ought to prevent that being done. THE WESTERN AIAORI AIEAIBER, Air Kaihau. speaking with great vehemence, said it was a new thing that the control of Alaori lands should bo handed | over to Boards to administer. Would Europeans tolerate it? The Maoris were subject to the same King and laws, and why should the Homso have the temerity to frame special laws in regard to native lauds? The main desire of the natives was that under no circumstances would they hand over the control and administration of their lands to the proposed Boards. Did tho pakeha forget the great consideration and the hand of fellowship extended to him by tho Alaori in tho past? He had never soon such a wrongful thing done ns tho introduction of this measure at this stage of the session, before the people whom it affected most had had an opportunity of perusing it. He advised members of Parliament to look carefully into the Bill, for it took away the last of the man a over the lands of tho Alaori; and what was going to happen when their raana passed over to these Boards? He promised tho House that if it passed the Bill the trouble would begin. He urged that it be deferred until next session. He wanted to see legislation that would secure the permanent welfare of tho Alaori pooi pie, but under no circumstances could ho agree to this Bill, which was a direct trampling upon of the mana of the Treaty of Waitnngi, that the Alaoris should have control of their own lands. 1 AD* Kaihau. who was allowed an hour for his speech, by courtesy of the House towing to half hie time being up by tho interpreter), concluded by moving that th© Bill bo hold over until next session ALLEGED BIAS. Mr Jennings criticised the norsonnel of the Commission, on which, he said, tho fettlers were not represented; nor wore the Alaoris of the Rohae Pntne and Waikato country. Tho Government hod placed on the Commission men with biassed opinions on native land legislation. Air Hogg regretted that the natives would pot have an opportunity of perusing this Bill in their own language before it wa*? passed into law. The great injustice that was done was the fact that much native land was systematically locked up and prevented being settled "THE IDEAS OF A DRF/AMER” Air A. L. D. Fraser said he was not now a member of the Native Affairs Committee, having resigned some daya ago for reasons that were his own. and he hod had nothing to do either directly or indirectly with tho passage of th© Bill th’oueli committee. H rt ventured to say that not 5 per cent, of th© person© most interested, the natives, knew tho content® of this Bill. A mistake was made in ever setting up this Commission; there was no necessity for it, and it -was a weakness on ti% part of the Alinlstry. Why had the Native Afinister occupied a seat in the House for twenty years and not formulated a policy himself, instead of sheltering him--1 self behind a Royal /Commission? Under this Bill they said to the natives, "We will take your land away for fifty years, and you can go where you like.” They were filching from the native his inherent instinct—that of his individuality. The Bill proposed to take away the natives’ pre-emptive rights (a policy rigorously opposed previously by Air Carroll); it would drive the natives to lose all heart, and make Europeans inclined to condemn those responsible for it. The > whole theories of the Royal Commission were Utopian, theoretical, and just the ideas of a dreamer. OTHER SPEAKERS. Mr Symes claimed that it would require a practical man to go over the theories of the Commission. No harm could be done by holding this Bill over until next session. Air Davey regretted that within four days of the closing of the session such an Bill should be brought down. It had become tho custom to bring down all native legislation during the last few days of tho session. REPLIES TO CRITICISM. During Air Fraser’s remarks he declared that a Royal Commission was tho ’’sheet-anchor of Die shuffler.” This brought tho Premier to his feet, in repudiation of such a reflection upon the Native Alinister. Air Fraser explained that he made no personal allusion to the Native Minister. He said the setting up of a Royal Commission was, as a general principle, the sheet-anchor of the shuffler. Th© Premier said he accepted the explanation, but the inference still remained that th© Government was endeavouring to shelter itself by shuffling. He would like to state that th© Government sot up the Commission as a matter of policy, with the object of dealing with a thorny subject with which every system of legislation introduced had proved itself inadequate to deal. They were not disposed to escape it© responsibility. If the House had *

stay until next week it would put this legislation through. He was not going to put himself in th© position of justifying the imaginary cry that the Government was attempting to force the pace. A return he had secured showed that Parliament had sat 557 hours before midnight this session, and only ninety hours afterwards. The largo areas of native land in the North Island must be unlocked and made available for settlement. 1

Mr Massey declared th© country was tired cf the session, and tired of the Government. When the session came to an end a great sigh of relief would go up from Europeans and natives, when further possibilities of mischief had disappeared. The longer they stayed the weaker the Government became. The Premier: In that case you should

agree to sit until December. Very satisfactory to you, but it is not correct. AiR KAIHAU FOUND NAPPING. Messrs Hander, Ell, Lang, and Dillon continued the debate. Air Kaihau’s amendment, put in his absence, was lost on tho voices. Air Kaihau returned to the Chamber after the Speaker had declared the amendment lost. Tho Western Alaori member appealed to the Speaker, in all earnestness, to go through the form of a division, as it was a matter of great importance to him, but tho Speaker ruled that Air Kaihau had mifsod his chance. The debate was resumed by Air Hoke, who was continually interrupted on points of order by Mr Kaihau. The Speaker threatened to "name” Mr Kaihau if ho continued his interruption. At 1.40 a.m. the Hon. J. Carroll rose to reply on the second reading. He said he wa© disappointed with the criticieni, which had centred round the personnel of the Commission in preference to tho merits and demerits of the measure before th© House. He took this an a proof that most of what was in the Bill had not been assailable. Th© second reading was carried by 42 votes to 7. The Bill was set down for committal on next sitting day.