YOUNG MAORI LEADERS

Te Ao Hou, March 1960, Page 1

YOUNG MAORI LEADERS What are the issues before the Maori people today? Many people have tried to answer this question but the most massive reply undoubtedly is that given by the Young Maori Leaders Conference in Auckland last September. The summary of the discussions of the 75 Maori leaders takes over 50,000 words covering every possible question. Most of what was said is truly representative of Maori opinion. Here then we can find what the Maori people desire and how they progress. We find that by far the most popular solution to the Maori land problem today is the Incorporation. Delegates from the East Coast and other areas where incorporations are prevalent did a good deal of detailed explaining to people from Waikato, Taranaki, the South Island and other areas where this institution is less known. It appears that people from these districts are now seriously considering starting incorporations themselves, where substantial and economic blocks are available. Speakers at the conference emphasised that incorporations have their own risks, but these can be overcome if the right precautions are taken. For instance, there is no reason why incorporations need to spend much money on litigation. A lot depends on the conduct of the annual general meetings where committee members are appointed and expenses authorised. It will take some time before the Maori people will fully use the democratic powers they have at such meetings, but it will inevitably be found that the only protection of an incorporation may lie in a prudent use of the ballot box to prevent ancestral assets from being squandered. A good deal of progress can be achieved, in the opinion of the leaders, if there is an increased effort in educating Maori communities in such things as farming practices, land titles problems, the long range dangers of Maori land sales, health and community organisation. To a large extent such education is a task for the Maori leaders themselves, for surely the less people are told by government servants what they should do the smoother progress will be. Nonetheless, the government, through its field supervisors health nurses and welfare officers, does bear a responsibility. Field supervisors, primarily appointed to ensure prudent expenditure of government finance on Maori land development and settlement, have a responsibility to help settlers to improve their farming practices. However, it is not the easiest thing to find enough farming experts who are also brilliant teachers. It is the policy of the department to raise the teaching to the highest standard possible and the criticisms in this respect only referred to some areas but by no means all. Even before the conference the department had been studying ways of

strengthening its instructional work now that the conference revealed how keenly Maori leaders appreciate such a service. Greater efforts are being made to strengthen educational work among Maori farmers. The most crucial issue raised during the conference was Maori housing. Here delegates acknowledged that the Department of Maori Affairs had made a greater contribution than any other organisation and expressed their thanks, but at the same time all the three round tables independently thought that the housing programme was too small. It is not surprising that a Maori conference should express such a view. Nobody and least of all a Maori leader, could look at the Maori housing situation with any complacency. It should be pointed out however, that Maori housing has not, over any long period, been held up purely for lack of loan moneys. Until the present government allowed family benefits to be capitalised in advance, there was a gap between the cost of a house and the loan finance available. Maori families found it hard to bridge this gap. The hold-up lay here rather than in the government's total provision for Maori housing. Furthermore, in cities like Auckland where suitable building sites are hard to get, the department could soon build itself out of sites if it stepped up its programme. Although much money was voted for purchase of sections last year, enough suitable building land could not be found on which to spend it. However, now that the Maori benefit can be capitalised, for the first time there is a long waiting list of Maori families who would be able to pay for a house tomorrow, if only a house could be made available. This new situation is a very challenging one, as was pointed out by one of the most prominent conference speakers, Mr T. T. Ropiha, the Maori housing scheme will lose much of its effectiveness, if the backlog is not speedily cleared up.