NATIVE LAND ALIENATIONS.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14140, 17 July 1916, Page 4

NATIVE LAND ALIENATIONS.

(From Our Own CoßKEsroNi-ENi.)

Wellington, July 15. A member rightly described it as a strange spectacle when the House of Representatives had to hear ia plea from a Maori representative to provide land for Maori soidiers when they return from the battle-line. These former owners of ai] New Zealand are already in the positioii of suppliants. Whe^o they have adopted European farming methods under slatted guidance, they flourish. A notable instance is on the East Coa.'jt of thu North Island, whers a large Maori communiiy farms the common heritage ■Tinder the direction of the Hoi;. A. T. N'gata. Alienations of' Native land avhich took place' iast year are detailed h. the Native Land "Department's report. In the Native townships four iessees in. Ot^rohauga and two lessees in To Kuiti have acquired the freeliold of their sections. In addition, t!>o Native Land Purchase Board, on behalf of the -Crown, piu'chased the- ireohold of eighteen sections iv. the 'Taumarunui Native township, and iivjirAiations were in progress and have since been completed for the purchase on behalf of the Crown of the freehold <rf fifty-three sections in Taumarunui Towi:ship Extension No. 1 all of the.so se;.t.i«ns being.Avithin the borough of TaumarTmui and comprising: very valuable land. During the year some. seve.n*}"three blocks^ comprising. 116,65j acr< s, woie proclaimed Crown land. Tht actual purchases made during the year totalled at., area of 154,006----acres, as computed with a toM of 96,----256 acres ;wxjuireri during the previous period. Ie the West Coast Settlement reserves the area purchased from the beneficial ov/ners on behalf of the Crown amounted i< r.pproximately 10,000 acres, while :ir; the Urowera Eeserve !a,it area of 84,700 acres was secured, making the Crown purchases in the Urewera total 125,495 acres as at March 31st List. Negotiations are in progress at present for tho acquisition of some 793 : bOCy acres of Native land, and a .start is being made with the purchase of n v.\uT:b^T of fresh blocks m

the TJrowero. country. The total area of Native 3nJ;d (alienated by way of sale during the last six years is approximately 1,568,394 acres, and of this total r.n area of some 531,848 acres, or more than one-third of the whole, has been acquired on 'boh'alf of tlie Crown, indicating the extensive part v'hich theCrown has played in securing. Nativeland for bons-fide settlement.