TAIHOA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 121, 14 July 1911, Page 7

TAIHOA.

“And, after all, what, have they (the Opposition) got to say about the Native Department?” asked Sir James Carroll at his recent meeting at Dunedin. “’Taihoa!’ They do not know what taihoa means. Prudence, carefulness, watchfulness mean Taihoa. Taihoa means looking , before you leap. Taihoa does not mean recklessness, and taihoa may mean interposition between right and wrong—it may mean baulking the speculator, standing in the way of the land grabber, in order that the community may, have a show to acquire some of the native lands still left in this Dominion. We have brought in a system, a policy. They don’t know what a policy is. They can’t conceive one. In the history of the native land legislation of this country, the native land question lias been 'zigzagged from one point to another, influenced by land speculators and land grabbers, until in 1900 we placed the whole thing on a definite footing. We did not want the' Maori to become a burden on the charitable aid boards just to satisfy the greed of a few pakehas who wanted to I get their land. We wanted the land thrown open to .the public. We had young people ~ growing up, and as long as things were clear and they were bona fide settlers he said throw the lands open so as to “get more people .on ■. the .land,, „. Could,, flipy ..point him out one Maori in the charitable aid institution to-day? They would not find more than a dozen in the Dominion to-day in the hospitals.”