THE DOINGS OF THE NATIVE DEPARTMENT.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VIII, Issue 2054, 26 May 1875, Page 3

THE DOINGS OF THE NATIVE DEPARTMENT.

It is reported that the Government, having obtained a ninety-nine*years lease of the Murimotu Plains from Maori owners, have re-let the land privately to a Canterbury firm of capitalists. The news is probably true. The capitalist referred to were, we believe, in treaty with the natives for the lease of a portion of the block before the Government agents appeared on the scene, when arrangements were made by which the Government were left to pursue their negotiations without rivalry. The would-be lessors have notf got their quid pro quo for their forbearance, and it is certainly a handsome one. The block, which lies at the back of the Wangauui district, between the Wanganui river and Taupo, is.a xorj large one, being estimated to contain about 300.000 acres. Most of the land is only adapted for-pasture, consequently, the rearing of stock, to which it is understood its new; lessees intend to apply it, would seem, to'be its natural function at presont.so that the objection does not lie that,bythe Government underletting it in the manner they havo done, the progress of settlement wiil be stayed. But there are cogent reasons against private arrangements of this character. It is quite opposed to the spirit of our laud laws, according to which the disposal of land, either by salo or lease, by tho Government or the Waste Lands Boards, should be effected in the full light of day. Iti3 true the Government may have relet the laud at a full renlal,- tho right principle is still infringed. The presumption in such cases, however, is that a job has been committed, elso there would be Ino object in this secrecy; and tho Government have laid themselves more open to tho imputation by their conduct some time ago in privately selling a largo tract of confiscated land in the. Waikuto to Messrs A. Cos, Thomas Jlusscll, and one or two other gentlemen, at half-a-crown an aero, while at the samo tiuio there were persons in Auckland ready to buy it at a higher price, if tho land had Leen in auy way offered to public competition. There is certuiuly one clcinont of difforeuco between the sale of the Waikato block, and .tho leasiug of (ho Murimotu country. In tho latter case, so far as profano eyes can piorco tho darkness which surrounds the proceedings of the NativoLand Purchase Department, the re-leasing of tho laud seoms to have bi'cn thp result "of a bargain made under the under-lessees before tho Government began their negotiations with the natives. But why on earth the Government should have interfered under such circumstances is the- puzzle. Jf for political reasons it was expedient to allow private individuals to lease the land directly from tho Natives, the proper course would have been for the Government to increase tho copious legal powers which they possess, and stop tho negotiations. As it stands, it looks as though tho Government had voluntarily consti-

tuted themselves agents to enable tlieso • gentlemen to obtain the land without undergoing the worry of making a personal arrngement with the Maori proprietors on their own account. But if the Government render such agreeable services in one instanco why should they not be equally complaisant' wherever .Europeans are negotiating with natives for land? What have.these gen- - tlemen dono for the good of the State that they should be so particularly, favoured? It is. one of those silenda inexplicabilcs which abounds in the Native Department. The fact is, the Native Department, as any other would have done, has become 'corrupted with long excess -of uncontrolled power, and does very wrong things without ever dreaming they arc wrong. But • we'are dealing.at present with tho land purchasing branch- of tho department, whose proceedings aro remarkably interesting, because.it is" busy spending £700,000 of borrowed money, for tho interest on and repayment .'of which the whole colony is responsible, The department is supposed to. be.,creating that landed estate for the: North Island, about which wo have heard, a.. . good deal lately; but it is evident that.if; - it wastes much of its funds in leading; . ' laud, which it re-lots immediately after to private individuals without consulting anybody, and sells largo blocks of territory at a nominal price, when a much hjghei' figure could bo got for it, tho landed estate of the Worth will fade away like a beautiful vision, while the loan in its acquisition will bo left behind as a painful reality.— Otmjo Daily Times,'