The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1911. NATIVE LANDS.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 30, 28 July 1911, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY. FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1911. NATIVE LANDS.

SIR James Carroll with his usual persuasiveness has been able to convince the Waikato Maoris that if the question of settling their lands is only left to him and Mahutu, the matter will soon be righted. We expected some such result as this and consequently we are" not disappointed. But if the Acting Prime Minister thinks that this method, of settling the question is satisfactory to the Maoris, we can assure him that it is anything but satisfactory to the rest of the country. And the matter is not one that concerns the Maoris alone, if it were we should have nothing to say, but it is the concern of any person who wishes New Zealand to prosper. When we see the evidence in any outgoing steamer that we are steadily losing our population, it is impossible for us to 190 k upon the conclusion arrived at as a satisfactory one, for it simply means that the whole thing is hung up indefinitely. Sir James Carroll has no idea of bringing these lands into the market. It does not suit his purpose and therefore, however much the country may suffer, he will not have the matter rushed. The idea in the mind of the Minister is, we believe, for the Maori still to retain his land until the demand is such that he will be able to obtain any price he cares to ask, and the money will go to build up the Maori aristocracy. We are to see the unusual spectacle of the Native race making terms and sitting on the necks of the white people. At least that is what Sir James Carroll has in view, and if it is not to be brought into actual realisation, the people must bestir themselves. This is a question that concerns every man and woman, not only in the Waikato, but in the Dominion, for the future prosperity, or otherwise, of the whole community is bound up in the question of getting the land settled, and the sooner he realises this and take steps to bring it about the better. When it suits the Government to facilitate the settling of these lands, they can very quickly get them settled, as witness the Mokau estate. And if the people of the Waikato will only make this a living question, ane insist on its settlement at once, we shall very soon see a great change in the face of the country, and instead of the policy of Taihoa we shall have thousands of new settlers making . the wilderness to blossom as the rose.