MAORI HOUSING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22631, 24 July 1935, Page 12

MAORI HOUSING

DEFENCE BY ARAWAS Resentment at the comments recently passed on Maori housing conditions in parts of the Te Puke and Rotorua districts is expressed in a statement issued by the Arawa Welfare League, which has been formed to safeguard the interests and maintain the prestige of the Arawa tribe. “If the facts as stated by Mr Tai Mitchell, chairman of the Arawa Trust Board, concerning housing conditions, are true,” comments the Arawa Welfare League, “ then it clearly shows that the trust fund handled by the board during the last 12 years, amounting to £72,000, has been grossly mismanaged. .That fund was clearly and definitely set down to be expended for the sole benefit of members of the Arawa people, and those people whose houses are so terribly in need of repairs are beneficiaries of this fund. “The fact that the Arawa Trust Bqard has. since its inception, spent thousands of pounds in fostering other tribes who are not beneficiaries, has in the Arawa League’s opinion materially deprived the people of the full benefit for which tiie fund was intended.”

The statement added that if housing conditions were as bad as had been stated, then the state of affairs was the direct outcome of the board’s maladministration, while if the comment on housing was used merely as propaganda to enlist the sympathy of the Government, then the adoption of such a means had boon carried out at the cost of tribal reputation.