MAORI AFFAIRS.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18809, 3 December 1932, Page 7

MAORI AFFAIRS.

ALLEGED EXTRAVAGANCE. MINISTER DEFENDS DEPARTMENT. LAND SETTLEMENT. WELLINGTON, Friday. Allegations of extravagance against the Native Affairs Department were answered in the House to-day by the Native Minister, Sir Apirana Ngata, during the second reading of the Native Land Amendment Bill. “ I am not not very sensitive, but I am not going to lie down under that sort of thing,” said the Minister, in defending the administration of his department, which he contended compared favourably with that of any other department of State. He made it plain that a clause in the bill laying it down that the purchase of further lands for settlement must be undertaken only on the recommendation of the Dominion Land Purchase Board was not to his liking, and he declared that In other times he would strongly advise the House not to accept it. The Minister said his candid opinion was that the clause in the bill necessitating the purchase of all land for settlement through the Land Purchase Board would not work, for it presumed that Maori lands could be bought in blocks in single transactions. Ho had not hesitated to express his views to the departments concerned, and if the present was a period of marked land settlement, lie would strongly advise the House not to accept tho change. It was a pakeha approach to an old problem and it had not succeeded. Native Land Board. The National Expenditure Commission had had a great deal to say about a “ one-man ” hoard, and what it described as extraordinary powers given to a Minister of the Crown. He had investigated his powers, and he did not see that they were much different from those of other Ministers. If boards were set up, a section of the House asked why the Minister was not doing his work. If they were not set up, then the Minister was said to have too much power. Sir Apirana said he had been told that the Maori Land Board should be abolished because it was not doing its job, or was doing something worse. In administration of moneys, ho did not think that any department of State had the record of this board up to March 31 last. He would like to put its accounts against those of tho " white-haired ” departments of State. “A good deal of the feeling of superiority is part of the slap-dash views of commissions and of newspapers," continued the Minister, who explained that although the cost of his department might appear to have doubled, actually, if the expenditure of the Cook Islands Department were considered separately, his department would be found to compare more than favourably with others. The Minister quoted from various accounts of his department to show their relatively good positions. He appealed to members not to think of native land development altogether in terms of pounds, shillings and pence, although in terms of money it w3uld challenge comparison with any other similar aoLivity of the State. By the depression, the Maori race had been deflected from its course and sent back to the land. That was of enormous importance, for the Maori had a great future on the land. Parliament, he urged, should consider it partly as a duty and partly as good business, to enable the Maori to develop his own lands, rather than to compel him to fall back on unemployment funds and charities. An Increased Vote. Mr M. J. Savage (Labour —Auckland West) said he believed there was a good deal of overlapping in the administration of the Dominion’s land laws, and that applied to native land laws. The Minister was entitled to the fullest amount of praise for the extent to which he had sharpened up the administration of native laws. Mr K. S. Williams (Government— Bay of Plenty) referred to the appointment of a board to supervsie tho settlement and development of native lands, and he urged the Minister to have an advisory committee appointed from the ranks of those who understood the outlook of Maoris. There had been a lot of criticism regarding the increase in the native vote, but it had to be remembered that the present- Minister was practically tho. first to devote any great attention to the development of native land, and it was only natural that expenditure had Increased. -Mr Williams said if Maoris were going to be given opportunities to settle on the land, they should lie taught to accept the same responsibilities as the pakeha.