NATIVE LAND CLAIMS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3799, 24 August 1936, Page 5

NATIVE LAND CLAIMS

EFFORT TO ARRIVE AT FINAL SETTLEMENT. COMMISSION SUGGESTED. A suggestion that the complicated problem of compensation for confiscated native lands might require further investigation by a commission with a view to arriving at a final solution was made by the Prime Minister, the Right Hon. M. J. Savage, as Minister of Native Affairs, in the House of Representatives during consideration of the vote for the Native Department. The question of the Maori claims was surrounded with indefiniteness, said Mr Savage. It seemed as if there should be a tribunal to go into the whole problem, including the Waikato, Taranaki, and South Island claims. Mir S. G. Smith (Opposition, New Plymouth) said there was a definite arrangement to pay the Taranaki natives £5OOO a year. Mr Savage replied that the Maoris were not satisfied with that. He would rather see the position faced by determining what the total sum would be to settle the claims once and for all. Parliament could go on voting for ever, paying £5OOO a year, and the original claims would remain. The problem had been dealt with in a piecemeal manner, and it might be worth while to appoint someone to deal with the whole question from one end of the country to the other. A commission was always justified when it was desired to investigate a claim and where a Government was on trial. There was no justification, however, for setting up a commission to define a policy for a Government. Some Government would have to face the native lands problem on the lines he was suggesting. To make annual payments and still have the original claims swinging was not satisfactory, and it would be better to complete matters by paying the whole amount involved, when that could be determined.

The Right Hon. J. G. Coates (Opposition, Kaipara) outlined the history of the problem as it affected the natives in various districts. He said the Prime Minister would find that it was not possible to arrive at a quick settlement of the claims. He did no object to a tribunal of inquiry, and the main thing was that the Maoris concerned should have fair treatment. It was a question of reasonable compromise. Everything possible should be done to heal old wounds.

MAORI EMPLOYMENT. Replying to a later question about the source of the grant of £200,000 for assistance, toward Maori employment, the Prime Minister said that the money would come from the Consolidated Fund. Originally it had come out of unemployment funds. The question had been raised of the obligation of the Maoris to conribute to the unemployment funds, but he was optimistic that eventually there would be no such fund at all. Instead of ’Utting people to contribute his object was to get people out of having to contribute. There should be no reason for such a fund.

Dealing with a suggestion that the Maoris' were leaving their lands to secure employment on public works, the Prime Minister emphasised that it was the duty of the Native Department and the Government to see that the land was made enough for the Maoris to 'encourage them to stay there. In the same way the only proper method of dealing with such pests as noxious weeds and rabbits on Maori lands was to get the Maoris back to the land. The Department was encouraging natives to work their own land, and where the position was sound was finance them in this work. There were .76 development schemes in operaticamong the natives, involving 1388 units, and other areas were under development.