NATIVE LANDS

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160730, 17 August 1920, Page 7

NATIVE LANDS

REDUCTION IN AREA. PURCHASE BY EUROPEANS. ‘■BARELY ENOUGH FOR MAORIS.’'" / WELLINGTON, August 16. The annual survey of operations of the Native Land Purchase Board stated that in 1911 there ’S’ere in the North Island 7,137,205 acres-'of land held by the Maoris. Smite that t;me 1,009,949 acres vero purchased by the Crown, and 1 339,570 alienated by sale through Maori Land Boards, leaving the approximate area owned bv the Maoris at March 31. 1920, a.s A,787,686 acres. Of the hitter total, 3,510.403 acres are estimated to he prof.tably occupied, leaving 1,227,278 acres unoccupied. If to the area of unoccupied land is added 380,604 acres, estimated to he occupied bv Maori owners there remain 1,657,278 acres avail,tbl; for the use of the Maoris, but of this it is estimated that abiut 550,000 acres are within tho pumice area., and to this probably another 200,000 acres, which include mountain lops, swamps, sand dunes, and land unfit for settlement should be added. This leaves an area of 907.273 acres that mav l>e considered tit for settlement. This cannot be regarded as an excessive area for the use of the 47,000 Maoris comprising the population of the North Island and their descendants. It is roughly 19 acres per head. Instead, then fore,' of there being a large area of native land available for general settlement, it would seem that there is barely sufficient for the requirements of the natives themselves.

Seeing that the Europeans have acquired about 62,020,000 acres of native laud, it might not be thought unreason.able to allow the • ative owners to retain Hie small are 1 , remaining to them, for it may safely be said that the lands leased to Europeans will never return to the occupation of the native owners. The great problem is to get them settled upon their"individual holdings, but this is an object not likely to be fully realised,"as all Maoris will not become farmers anv mere than will all Europeans. The "Native Department is sometimes twitted with not publishing figures and making statements in regard to the position of native lands, but there are ample figures published in the Various returns for anyone intelligent enough to understand "them. All the figures and statements that cari be made will not alter the position, which is that the Maoris have disposed of nearly all the lands that they can dispose of without leaving the bulk of them landless, and later, probably, to become a charge on the State.