THE MAORI'S HOPE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13575, 5 December 1907, Page 2

THE MAORI'S HOPE.

At the Native ,Land Commission at Gisborne on Saturday Sir Robert Stout said that the Commission wanted to have the Maoris made efficient farmers, like Europeans, and the best way to do this, as was done elsewhere in the. Dominion, was to fence the blocks off into several farms. If it was left in one whole block there would be no special farming. He suggested that the owners should consider how many farms i the Te Kopua block could be divided into, and they could leave these to different families. It would be a good thing if they could induce the young men to take up the farms. The difficulty in the past had been in ndt having a proper title. Speaking in the interests of the whole race Sir Robert affirmed that the only hope for the Maoris was to become farmers. If they continued on in the old way, selling land and spending the money in drink, in a few years there would be no Maoris left. He urged them to go away and consider how the lands could be divided into farms, and who would be most suitable to take it up, and the Court could afterwards arrange the interest of all. He wanted to impress upon them that this was a .crisis, in ..the history of the race, and he. asked them to consult together, and to see him again on the matter.