REHABILITATED MAORIS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 81, Issue 7253, 18 September 1950, Page 4

REHABILITATED MAORIS

NOT MORE THAN DOZEN WAIKATO-MANIAPOTO LAND BOARD AREA “Not more than a dozen” returned Maoris had been settled on the. land under the rehabilitation scheme in the Waikato-Maniapoto Land Board area, the registrar of that board, Mr. Robertson, told the vested Land Commission last week. The demand was very disappointing. In addition to this number there were 25 to 30 Maoris who had been graded for farming, but it seemed that many of them were not anxious to go on the land. Assuming that a quarter of the Maoris of the Land District found their future in farming, there would be about 1000 to consider, he estimated. In the Land Board area there were probably not more than 20,000 to 25,000 Maoris, two-thirds of whom would be under the age of 16, whilst half of the remainder would be females. That left some 4000 male adult Maoris, and a quarter had been given as the proportion likely to look to a future in farming. At present there were 280 Maori farmers under the Department, and there were 14 larger blocks, which it was proposed to sub-divide, (where suitable, into individual Maori farms. The district stretched from Auckland to Taumarunui, and from the West Coast to Matamata and the Hauraki district.