TREATY OF WAITANGI

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1931, Page 8

TREATY OF WAITANGI

LABOUR AND THE MAORI. NEW MEMBER’S DECLARATION. The rights of Maoris under the Treaty of Waitangi were discussed at a large gathering of natives at Ratana, near Wanganui, recently, when a visit was paid by two Labour members of Messrs. R. Semple and R. McKeen. . ’

Early in the proceedings Mr. Ratana asked if the Labour Party was willing to support the observance of the Treaty of Waitangi, to which the reply was in the affirmative. In reply to a further question the Labour visitors said that they were willing to put this promise in writing. These statements obviously made an impression on the Maoris present, says the Wanganui Chonicle. Mr. Taite Te Tomo, Reform member for the Western Maori electorate, who was recently elected to succeed the late Sir Maui Pomare, was also a visitor to the pa, and he pointed out that the Labour Party, during the time they had held the United Party in power, had made no effort to see that the Maoris’ rights were upheld. He said it looked to him like a vote-catching' expedition. The speaker, continuing, said that he was a Maori with a Maori’s feelings, and therefore he had a prior right to the Maori’s support. He also pointed out that Mr. Coates had already promised what the Maoris asked, and he mentioned the matter of confiscated lands and what had been accomplished, as proving that Mr. Coates had actually kept his promises. Mr. Coates had been the only Prime Minister who had ever done anything in the direction of compensation for confiscated lands.