RATES ON MAORI LANDS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 October 1930, Page 6

RATES ON MAORI LANDS

There is one clause in the Native Lands Amendment Bill introduced into the House of Representatives on Wednesday that will probably be very welcome to local authorities. It gives power to the Minister of Native Affairs to arrange with any local authority for a settlement in regard to fates due or r.lmnt to become due in respect of native lands for a sum to be agreed upon. The

collection of rates from .Maori landowners lias been one of the gieate*st difficulties certain local authorities have had to fuee, and under existing lawn it has been questionable whether to use legal processes of collection was not throwing good money after bad. lhe net result has been that rates have been uncollectable, and. the finances of local authorities have been correspondingly reduced. This has meant increased burdens for European settlers and the limitation of expenditure upon the roads and other public works, to the detriment of development. The proposed Bill is to assist in the Native .Minister’s declared policy of teaching the .Maori to (ise his land himself rather than to lease it to Europeans and spend the proceeds in idleness, or where that is Impossible to make little, if any, use of his land except as a nursery for noxious weeds. EaeiHties for group developmeat and settlement arc extended with the right to call upon Maori owners f land adjacent to improved areas ti. share in the cost of development, and the Native Trustee is to have power to act on behalf of absentee ’ owners. This will remove a great stumbling block to piogress. As' is well known, the. search for ownership is often protracted, and in the meantime expenditure is unwise and development lugs. Native Lund Boards are to have power io devote any land they deem desirable to the encouragement of industry mid actually to engage in an industry on behalf of the others of the land in question or other natives wlio will benefit theieby. It is true the Bill will place' an enormous amount of power in the hands of the Minister. It will, however, by this means overcome) the procrastination that has been such a hindrance io the development of Maori lands, and, what is even more important, will remove some of the difficulties in the way of the Maori race accommodating itself to the complexities of a European civilisation. So far the results of Sir Apiruna Ngata’s policy are most promising, and in tackling the thorny question of land tenure and rating he is showing a determination that deserves success.