impressed with their business acumen and ability I doubt whether any group of Europeans similarly placed and selected could have shown a more intelligent grasp of the problems nor have afforded more constructive criticism and help’. Some incorporations have failed, but it is open to question whether the percentage of failures is any greater than those of European companies over the same period, or whether irregularities under the one are any more prevalent than under the other. Trading banks have financed the Maori incorporations for many years. Principal causes of failure have been poor accounting and secretarial administration, struggles for power among conflicting factions and assumption of power by dominant personalities. In European companies similar tendencies of course exist.

A GIANT CLUSTER OF INCORPORATIONS The most important of the Maori incorporations is undoubtedly the giant cluster established just recently on the East Coast, in the place of the East Coast Trust Lands. If the East Coast Commissioner was, for many years, the most powerful farming concern on the Coast, the new incorporations, provided they remain united, can retain a similar position. The beginning of the story of the East Coast Commission was told in an earlier issue of Te Ao Hou; the Maori people tried to farm these lands towards the end of last century but failed; parliament saved the lands from being sold up and placed them under a commissioner who managed not only to salvage them, but to transform them into unecumbered assets worth several million pounds. Meanwhile, about the nineteen thirties, a new generation of Maoris had grown up with greater experience in managing land, greater selfconfidence and an understandable desire to run their own affairs. To give these people some satisfaction, parliament, in 1935, set up ‘block committees’ to assist and advise the East Coast Commissioner. These committees met regularly and discussed the problems of their respective blocks, but they had no power of decision. Mr Jessop, the commissioner, considered that this should rest with him as long as the financial position necessitated the continuance of the trust. This financial position, however, improved from year to year. In 1939 the principal security debt was paid off; in 1945 the lands were clear from all the mortagages. The wool boom of the late forties greatly improved the position of the weaker brothers among the blocks, the so-called debtor blocks which were still encumbered with debt to other blocks in the trust (the so-called creditor blocks). The great majority were now able to stand soundly on their own feet. After several years of preliminaries, preparations for winding up were started in 1950. The first stage consisted of a huge court case, fought in the Supreme Court in Gisborne, with both sides representing thousands of Maori owners—on the one side were the beneficiaries of the East Coast Trust Lands; on the other side descendants of those whose land had been under the East Coast Settlement Company and had been sold at one time or another to pay debts. Most of this land had been sold before 1908, and its owners or their heirs obviously had a claim. A very pleasant compromise was reached, and settlement was made out of the huge reserves accumulated by Mr Jessop. At the time of writing, the complex task of liquidation of the other blocks is nearly completed and many committees of management are completing their first independent farming year.

ONENUI STATION: AN INCORPORATION AT WORK Te Ao Hou had an opportunity to study the ways of the new incorporations more closely during a trip to Onenui Station. This must be one of the most isolated places in New Zealand; it certainly is one of the most beautiful. Occupying the northern tip of Mahia peninsula the station can only be reached for short periods every twelve hours when the tide is down. We left our car behind on the beach and were conducted to the homestead over a mile or so of rocks covered with shallow water. The rocks were rough; only people who know the terrain intimately know which bumps to choose and which to avoid. We had arrived a day before the first meeting of the new incorporation (about a year ago)—a public meeting combined with an admirable habit still carried over from the block committee days: the annual picnic to which all owners in the block Photograph: John Pascoe were invited. The idyllic scenery is not the only attraction of this place for casual visitors; it also has an inexhaustible supply of crayfish, paua and many other types of shellfish. Looking over the property we saw some spots that seemed very familiar. This was because some passages of the film ‘Broken Barrier’ were shot here: this is where the cattle stampeded on that film. Most of the 4,364 acre station is on a triangular plateau well