WAITARA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 144359, 25 March 1914, Page 7

WAITARA.

FROM oun IttSJDENT AGENT

March 25.—Mr. 0. K. Wilson, M.P., spent .Monday evening with the. executive of the Chamber «a Commerce. in reply to a short speech by Mr. itonnie (vice-president), Mr. Wilson_ said 1m appreciated the spirit of friendliness that existed lietwreii the member and the diiferent local representative bydk«, ami from such iritaidline.es he hoped and behoved that much good would result. Ho iimlc-istood that the executive wished to consult him oil reading questions. It was im|ios'.l)!o lor tho Government to do more than deal with a fraction of tho applications for reading grants, inasmuch a-, they amounted to no les» than five inillioms of m.inoy, and thoro was only £170,000 available. He proceeded P> say that under an Act recently passed, settlers in a district rouid now uijtain loans at small interest on tho whole of their rateable value instead of on third.”., as had boon tho rule hitherto. Ho felt sure that when this new scheme was hotter known to settlers and county councils that it would bo generally taken advantage ol ami thus the settlers would ho able to decide the question of reading themselves. He considered, however, that the main arterial roads should ho a charge on the- Govniuni. With roiemiec to tho Mount Messenger Hoad, winch .ho cimml-or is endeavouring by every possible means to get completed, Mr. V> Pson had done ins best and would continue to do so, to get this important road completed. Ho considered that tho present method of making roads by piecemeal of little use and most extravagant. He strongly advocated the making of the roods right through, and not half the length one year and the remainder years afterwards.

The coming visit of Mr. Fraser to Wa-itara, as tho guest of tho chamber, was gone into. Mr. Wilson expected that his visit to the district would extend to two or thro© days. Ho was informed that it was hoped to take the Minister l along the Tar aia-0 toraoa Itoad as well as the Mount Messenger Hoad, and that it was proposed to banquet him at delegates from Uruli to bo present, and Mr. Wilson also expressed tho hoped that he too might have the opportunity of being preesni. Mr. Wilson afterwards strongly advised the chamber to concentrate their force on tbo Mount Messenger Hoad and the Mohan bridge by the completion of which work a very largo district would bo developed. It was of Htilo use settlers saddling themselves with loans for side roads if the main road was shutting them in. Personally he believed that tho necessary work could be done for £20,000, divided as follows: £5,000 for the mountain, £12,000 for the bridge and £SOOO for the valley. Ho considered that the present system of grants for reading purposes w r as about the worst and most extravagant system that could bo devised in a country-

Dealing with tho Native question and Native lands, Mr. Wilson said that tho Natives were naturally excellent farmers and good workers, but that they were being ruined by the way in which they were being treated. In tho great majority of instances, so long as n© got enough from tho Public Trustee to enable him to Jive ho was quite willing to sit in his doorway idling his time away and letting his land go to waste, to the general demoralisation of his character. If they had to work to live, their farms would be very different from what they aro in so many instances at tho present day. Something will have to bo dono to alter tho existing state of affairs. Work was tho only salvation of tho Native to-day. There were no better workers than the Maoris, and why should they not work and thus be made good citizens? But the present system spoilt them by so-call-ed kindness—kindness by enabling them, men, women, and children, to loaf abo/ib living on rents. Native laud had not right to lie idle. It would act as a stimulant for work if the Maori know that that was the only way by which ho would get money aud his work would then bo turned into the profitable channel of developing his own lands of which there were vast areas lying idfe and waste. Ho believed in kindness to the Maori, but the so-called kindness with which he had been treated had been nothing but a refinement of cruelty, for ho had boon pampered to such an extent that ho had come lo regard himself as an almost superior being. Give tho Maori a chance to work his own farm and ho will very soon work it as well as anybody. Pamper him as ho had been pampered and no will very soon lose what character ho liad left.