THE EAST COAST COMMISSION

Te Ao Hou, March 1959, Page 8

THE EAST COAST COMMISSION The Tolaga Bay Maoris saw a chance of salvation in the attempt of certain of their leaders, notably Sir James Carroll and Wi Pere among others, to launch a company called the East Coast Lands and Settlement Company, which had as one of its very laudable objects the desire to obtain adequate capital for the development of their own lands by raising mortgages through the Bank of New Zealand and issuing scrip. A vast area of Maori lands extending from Wairoa to Tolaga Bay became involved. The Company however was beset with difficulties as great as the ones it had tried to avoid, and the Maoris were soon struggling to save their lands from foreclosure. In 1901 the bank took steps to foreclose and several blocks were advertised for sale. Government intervention finally saved much of the land, although some fifty to a hundred thousand acres had to be sold to reduce the enormous debt of over £170,000 to manageable proportions. Some of the finest land in the now greatly reduced Tolaga Bay Maori reserves had to be sold to relieve their mortgage burden. The East Coast Commission was established by the Government and brought the remainder of affected lands under efficient control, carried out its dedicated task so well that more than 150,000 acres have been handed back to the owners, in a solvent and productive state. The Maori owners in Tolaga Bay have resumed control of their ancestral lands and they are managing quite well. Two of the three blocks however will need to set aide huge reserves if they are to be fully developed, and one of the drawbacks of the present system of committee management general throughout the many similarly administered Maori blocks is the fast that far too much emphasis is placed upon the payment of dividends that leave little or no funds for adequate development and investment reserves. However, most of the lands that were not farmed by the commission had eventually to be leased to Europeans in order to ensure that the rates were paid, while many other holdings were taken over for the nonpayment of rates. In certain cases the fault lay in the multiplicity of ownership which led to undue restraints and impositions being practised upon those to whom the management was entrusted. Many of the ancient hapu names disappeared completely from the district and there are now only five maraes in the district. Certain hapus have become almost completely landless and yet they persist as a vigorous adaptation in a modern world.