MAORIS AS FARMERS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17231, 10 April 1930, Page 5

MAORIS AS FARMERS

WORK OF SETTLEMENT DR. PETER BUCK PLEASED The speed with which the work of settling the Maoris on the land lias progressed during the three years lie has been absent from the Dominion has greatly impressed Dr. Peter Buck, ethnologist to the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, who is visiting Auckland. He is returning to Hawaii by the Niagara for a further two years. In the past the Maoris held small interests in various blocks of land, and it was difficult for men who were prepared to work to do so. This was now being overcome by the consolidation of the interests of each community and providing an area of land on which a group could live and work. Dr. Buck has visited a number of those settlements, particularly at Gisborne, Mahoenui, Wanganui, Waiapu, Waimilia, near To Kuiti, Waiuku and at Horohoro, near Rotorua. The Government had also helped in breaking in these areas and had advanced money for fencing, grassing and stocking. The co-operative spirit was especially noticeable at Horohoro. The land had belonged to the Rotorua tribe, but the area had been given to the Minister of Native Affairs for administration. Natives had been brought in from Wairoa, Hawke’s Bay, to settle the area —an action typical of the unselfish early Polynesians. The change over from sheep farm-” ing to dairying at Waiapu had resulted in an additional £4OOO being paid out by the dairy- factory- for butter-fat. Such results were providing the Maori with an incentive to go on the land and earn his living, said Dr. Buck. The settler would then be in a position to pay the rates and taxes due, and this would put county councils and other bodies in a position to provide better facilities. —Sim.