NATIVE LAND PURCHASE

Otago Witness, Issue 3327, 19 December 1917, Page 9

NATIVE LAND PURCHASE

THE GOVERNMENT'S POLICY LARGE AREA ACQUIRED. A statement as to purchases of Native land in the Urewera Country by his department was made by Mr Hemes (Minister of Native Affairs) in a speech at Whakatane on the 11th inst. Mr Henries said the policy of himself and Sir James Carroll and Mr MacDonald (his predecessors) in regard to Native land purchases had been fairly continuous. The present policy was to encourage as far as possible purchases by the_ Crown and to discourage purchases by private speculators. The principal aim during the past three or four years had been to purchase as far as possible land on lines of railway that had been laid out. His first endeavour had been to acquire as much land as possible along the route of the East Coast railway. Ho had been very successful up tothe present. Every large block of Native land between Napier and Gisborne had been purchased by the Crown. Several of these blocks were now being cut up by the Lands Department, and one block was' already in the possessfon of returned soldiers. One large block not yet acquired was held under a long lease, but it was intended to purchase this if possible and to make arrangements with the lessee. Referring to the Urewera, Mr Merries said that since the end of 1913 tho Government had purchased 230,000 acres in several of the best blocks. The area in the Urewera was 652,000 acres, not 800,000 acres, as had been stated. He did not doubt that within a short period it would be possible to purchase still larger areas. He thought it would be wiser to continue purchasing for a little time longer, and not to commence at onco to cut out tho Crown's interests from the blocks. Once they started to cut out interests and to road the land those owners who had not sold naturally raised their prices. The Minister added that large purchases of Native lands had also been made in the Bay of Plenty and adjacent districts. In many cases in which it had become known that private purchasers were endeavouring to acquire land' the department had exercised its right of _ putting a proclamation on land, and in quite a number of instances the land had been bought by the Government. Under these circumstances somo people urged that the Government should simply take the land from Natives and pav_ them its. value, whether they wero willing to sell or not, but they had to remember that there was such a scrap of paper as the Treaty of Waitangi... The system that had been followed, although a little slower, was fairer. Mr MacDonald said that the settlement of land questions was necessarily attended with considerable difficulties. When tho Urewera and Bay of Plenty lands were fully developed this would bo the most prosperous portion of tho dominion.