NATIVE LAND PROBLEM

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17913, 8 January 1930, Page 9

NATIVE LAND PROBLEM

BAY OF PLENTY POSITION. A GREAT OPPORTUNITY. GIVE THE MAORI HIS 'CHANCE. (By “Te Kalca.”) From Papamoa to the boundary of the Ohinemuri County beyond Katikati, including Matakana Island, and extending south and west to the boun'daries of the Matamata County, are numerous—it would not be any great exaggeration to say numberless — blocks of land owned by the Ngaitehi and the Ngatiranginul tribes. Taking an approximate division, the Ngaitehi are owners of the lands from Papamoa to the Halrlnl bridge, and from there westward the lands belong to the Ngatiranginul. The Otaua Block, extending eastward from Papamoa towards the Te Puke reefs, also belongs to the Ngaitehi tribe. The greater proportion of this area is good arable and pastoral land, in fact much of the best land in this district is included therein. If properly farmed it would mean, on a moderate estimate, an Inorease of BO Per Cent in our marketable products, and a correspohding benefit to the district as a whole and to Tauranga as its centre. To bring this land Into productivity is therefore a task which should commend Itself to any or every man who has the welfare of the district and of its people at heart, and any definite advance in this direction would make the year 1930 a memorable one in the history of our progress. In order to understand the problem which we have to resolve, it is necessary to consider the conditions as they at present exist, and to determine the causes which led to such conditions. It is easy to dismiss the matter by saying that, as a farmer, the Maori is a failure, and is by temperament and by heredity unfitted to succeed in this occupation. And to ,a superficial observer, seeing only the large area of idle native lands, and knowing the hand-to-mouth existence of many of the Maoris in this district, the foregoing might be accepted as final. But from individual cases in our own district, and from what has been done in other parts where the conditions are more favourable, it is found that the Maoris have achieved a

Considerable Amount of Success in farming pursuits, and, given the same opportunities, there is no reason to doubt that a similar o-r greater success can be achieved here, more especially as our climatic and soil conditions are ideal for mixed farming in comparatively small areas. Wfiat, then, are the causes to which are due the present unsatisfactory state of our Native lands? First and foremost, it is the fact that not a Maori in the whole district, with the exception of a negligible few who have been fortunate enough to buy out their own interests, has an acre of ground which he can actually call his own. Secondly, the different families have had their interests apportioned in various blocks, with the result that in most cases the sections are too small for a family to make a living from, and in many cases are not worth the expense of fencing, so that large areas arc turned into a common, with all its accompanying drawbacks. Lastly, as the land is not individualised, the Maoris of this district are unable to take advantage of the benefits of advances made by the Native Trust, for the purposes of improving and stocking their lands. Considering these facts, it might be that we shall be led to revise our opinion of the “mangere Maori" and his idle lands, and to endeavour to imagine what the' pakeha would be to-day if he had been living under the same conditions for generations, with no incentive to work and no great need to work.

Give the Maori His Chance, and I venture to predict that in 20 years, nay in ten years, where we now. have hundreds of acres of Idle lands we shall see instead flourishing homesteads on which the Native owners will be working industriously for their own benefit and for the welfare of the community, loyally fulfilling their obligations as good citizens, and even taking their share in local government with the same ability and distinction which have marked their compatriots in our National Legislature.—Bay of Plenty Times.