Woodville Examiner. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) Sine odio ; sine prejudlcio. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1883 NATIVE RESERVES.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 25, 22 December 1883, Page 2

Woodville Examiner. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) Sine odio ; sine prejudlcio. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1883 NATIVE RESERVES.

Go WIIE«E one will in blocks of co'in tty that are opened up for settlement, ono finds that in almost every one. t he c.e im oi tha land is set apa t r Native Reserve*. This is fair in theory, and it certainly sounds well in the mother country if it can be smd that the colonists in New -2 aland provide for the helpless natives. We ar e intruders on their soil, it Is said, and have no right ti take away their lands. ■On the other hand, it hard oa the colonist themselves, that have ventured to try their chances here, and have undergone hardships ntd taxation, to see Native Lands growing va'uable through their own exertions, and .yet lying utterly nnpio luc'ive. The Telegtaph, speaking of native lands, says:—“Truly it may bo 'Sfiid of this favored or favored races, as it was of the lily, “ they spin not, neither do they toil," and wo may well considei how they g row—in riches. Jhe laws of this colony have vested the unearned increment in the Maoris, and

they thrive upon it, while the European celonigts are ground down by taxation to pay for the loann, the expenditure ef which have made the Da live lands valuable.” if the natives made use of their reserves, if they paid -rates on them in the same way as any other colotist, or oven if they leased them to the best possible advantage, there wOu’d be no complaint on the score of the pick ot the lands being reserved on their beha-lf. But., under the existing state of things, the e ia hardly a block thrown Ofcn fbr settlement that is not deteriorated by oois of those resei vee ;th ne N scarcely a ploce that could complain of some lands that are no l- , and although these lands are so much sought after, still the navives do not wo k them, or turn th mto advantage, and arsnoce the richer from being their owners. Some enterprising whit-man usually succeeds in the end, in seeming the lease of these reserves, and then, the Nntiv* a draw a small rent, sometimes not more than I or 2 per cent on the vplue of the land, besides which it is lucked np f r long teruis of yea s, Supposing the 2,000 acres of Native Reserve in the Woodvilla district were cut up and sold in small fa-ms, there ia no doubt that, at the very least, they would resize £1 per acre clear, after paying the costs of survey. Ibis would be £2,000, which would be placed in the Treasury on behalf of the Natives, who would draw the in - terest annually, which, at 5 per cent would amount to £IOO. And this annuity would be perpetual and last for all time. The advantages that would accrue to all parties concerned are immense. First the natives would tfeeive a certain fixed annual income which they could depend upon. Then, the district would no longer be crip- ; led, and some 20 or 3© farmers and their families would take the place o* the present tenant?, wild pigs, and a few stray cattle. And again the Government coffers would have the use of the purchase money which seleclo.s bad paid for the land fur an indefinite period, and at a low rate of interest. There are nr ny minor advantages that would all tend to favor the com so which we should to much like see adopted, in future dealings with Crown and Native Lands, name’y the con. version of Native Reserves into Go-ve-nmoat 'amis and the capitalisation of their value to the ciedit of the Maori owners. The natives would then knot? exactly how much income a certain quantity of land would produce, and they would be less 1 kely to be shaped and imposed upon by unscrupulous laid sharks. All lands Would then pay their shere of and above all, some of the cream of thej blocks, instead of being singled out to remain an everlafcting white elephant to a distiict, aod monument of tho political economy of tho past, wonld be producing its share of the crops on which every country depends, and euppoiting familh s who in tu n pay-m shave of the gtnend taxation of the whole country With all the pies-mt outc.y on tho Nationalization of Land, tho alleged object of which is to assist ia the settlement of small fanners and t® prevent tho holding of large blocks of hind by oae person, it is surprising that other and more fesaible remedi*K are not resorted to, tuch as the one we are poimi g out, after which, by all means set to the greater task of break., mg up largo blocks into smaller one’.