WEST COAST RESERVES

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1935, Page 7

WEST COAST RESERVES

PROBLEMS IN TARANAKI VALUATION OF IMPROVEMENTS. OPINION OF HON. JAMES McLEOD.. WEAKNESS OF PRESENT SYSTEM. (By Telegraph—-Special Reporter.) Wellington, Last Night.

The Maori question, with particular reference to the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act difficulty, was dealt with by the Hon. James McLeod when moving the Address-in-Reply motion in the Legislative Council to-day. He said the difficulty was very pressing in Taranaki at the moment.

A very considerable area of Maori land in Taranaki was confiscated after the Maori Wai’, he explained. The report of the Native Affairs Commission of 1934 showed that the area involved in the West Coast Reserves was 71,926 acres. Under the Acts of the ’seventies and ’eighties, culminating in the Act of 1392, the land was subject to leasing up to 30 years. So far as one could read from the available evidence, it was necessary to take steps to prevent the impoverishment of the Maori owners and, in the second place, to promote pakeha settlement.

The 1892 Act invested control of the land .in the Native Public Trustee, empowering him to lease land for periods of 21 years with the right of renewal. Renewals had to be made on the basis of valuations at the end of the term of the fee simple and on the gross value and of value of improvements. Many of these leases had been renewed recently and almost 190 were about to be renewed. The point had been raised that improvements so valued should be confined to the period of the present tenant—to the past 21 yeai-s. A recent judgment of the Supreme Court upheld this view and restricted the valuation of improvements to those made, during the existing term.

“There,” said Mr. McLeod, “the Government was in the fire,” for more than haff the adjustments had been made and it was a question whether those that had been made were not irregular also. The present position was satisfactory neither for the native or for the tenant. Mr. McLeod hoped, however, that some conference or commission would be appointed. to adjust the matter. He did not doubt that a mutually satisfactory solution could be .found, although legislation would probably be necessary. “We know,” he said, “that the Maori race is increasing in "numbers and resuming its virility, and it must be found a place in the sun. It cannot be held that the present renting system is going to be satisfactory to the Maoris of the future. What is going to happen when the beneficiaries number thousands where they now number hundreds? A long view should be taken of the position. We know that there is one vocation for which the Maori is suited, one vocation that he prefers, and one in which he can be of most benefit to himself and to the country—the vocation of the land. The time has come to find some method of disposing of such native rereserves as West Coast Native Settlement Reserve, capitalising the interest of the Maori in them and securing for him an inalienable foothold in the soil, on which he and his dependants can settle and the future of the race be assured. The Maori race is a wonderful one and well worthy of being given the best chance we can give it.”