Te Toa Takitini 28
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Te Toa Takitini
Registered at the GPO as a News paper.
(Maori Version at PapersPast.)
Number 28, Hastings. November 1, 1923.
THE NGAI TAHU CLAIM.
In the ‘Washing-up Bill’ passed by this Parliament the first steps were taken in settling the Ngai Tahu Claim which was explained in a previous edition [Number 26] of Te Toa Takitini. The Member for Te Waipounamu has a clear grasp of the situation and is supported by the Aotearoa Maori Members. They laid down a proposal which was confirmed by the Minister of Maori Affairs, that during this year it should be determined who the people are who should benefit from the Ngai Tahu Claim. Therefore a legal clause was drawn up like the clause drawn up in the previous year concerning Patutahi and Aorangi. The power to investigate was given to the Maori Land Court, and they are to say who the people are who are to receive benefits under this claim, to determine their shares, and pass on their order to the Government. This is a major investigation and we think it will take a long time. Ngai Tahu are a great tribe and have been experiencing much anguish over this matter. There have been many efforts and many collections of money, and many of them have been dispersed over the face of the earth and to the two islands, and many are close to disappearing amongst the Pakeha.
Ngai Tahu should not think that this is a small part of their claim; it has now been embodied in the law. Their hope is that Parliament will say ‘yes,’ and agree to the amount recommended by the Commission. But they need to bear in mind the financial tightness of these years, although at last the Government is able to unbend its back after the many exigencies of the war and the storm that came soon after. If there are pressures on the finances this year then the Government may be powerless to agree. Therefore the gentler path is being followed this year. And perhaps the Government will not be in a hurry to set up a Court of Enquiry if they are not keen to settle the Ngai Tahu Claim.
Published by the Rev F A Bennett. Ptinted by Cliff Press, Queen Street, Hastings, HB.
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Te Toa Takitini.
Registered at the GPO as a Newspaper.
The Subscription for the Paper is 6/6 a year.
Address letters to ‘Te Toa Takitini,’ Box 300, Hastings.
Te Toa Takitini
November 1, 1923.
THE HEALING MISSION.
October 29 to November 1.
We turn to the Song of Simeon for words to express our great wonder at the blessings of God upon the activities of the Mission.
Lord, now lettest thou they servant depart in peace,
According to thy word.
For mine eyes have seen they salvation
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.
To be a light to lighten the gentiles,
And to be the glory of thy people, Israel. [Luke 2.29-32]
The total number of sick who attended in Napier was 1,690. The number of Maori who attended in Napier was 150. At Evening Prayer on the Monday the number of people in the Cathedral was 2,200.There were a thousand or more who were unable to get a seat.
Mr Hickson has a fine voice and preaches very clearly. He did not use difficult words, or harsh words. In speaking he did not elevate himself and he did not like to draw attention to himself. ‘I cannot heal you,’ said Mr Hickson. ‘Only Christ can heal you.’
There was much favourable comment on the Mission, the reverence of the services and the kindness of the people, the love of the Pakeha for the Maori, and that many experienced physical and spiritual blessings. Many people gave their hearts to God.
Thursday, November 1, was the day arranged for Maori. Among the Maori were Pakeha who had not been able to attend the first days of the Mission. There were two hundred Pakeha.
The Maori were the first to have hands laid upon them because this was their day. When he had laid hands on all the Maori, Mr Hickson turned to the Pakeha.
Mr Hickson’s Sermon.
If some of you today find yourselves blessed physically or spiritually you must be aware that this blessing comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. If you have come with
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the idea that I can heal you then you are mistaken. The power to heal does not reside in people themselves. But there are some people chosen by God as channels of that power. It is right that such people dedicate that power to God and allow themselves to be used as channels of his blessings to others.
When I lay hands on you I am giving myself over to our Lord Jesus Christ and in my heart I am asking that I might be a pathway of his healing power to you.
The laying on of hands is one of the ways in which God’s blessings are conveyed. There are others. One is a prayerful heart. Many people have come to this Cathedral to pray for you in your illness. Prayer is a way by which conveys his blessings to you and by which you are healed. But also set about helping one another. Don’t just think about yourself, about your own illness, but pray to God for your friends who are suffering. By remembering and praying for your friends the healing Spirit of our Lord goes about amongst us. Christ is the healer of body and soul. There is no part of you available for illness to live if your body and soul are occupied by Christ. Bear in mind that the body is our temple while we live in this world. Christ came to save people. The body will die while the person in that body will not die; when the body dies the person himself will emerge from that body to the life of the spirit. Christ’s wish is that we arise in a right state to that life. Therefore let us come with a penitent heart to confess to him our sins. Confess to him all the things that enable decay to cling to us. We are all subject to temptations. If we do not have an inclination to that temptation within us, the devil will have no power to tempt us. It is the inclination towards evil in the heart that makes an opening for the devil. Christ is the power by which we are not dragged down into the power of the devil. Our hearts are besmirched; there is no place for the spirit of peace to settle. Therefore we know that the first thing we must do is confess our sins and pray with a penitent heart that our hearts may be washed and made clean so that we may rightly pray that our bodies may be healed of all kinds of sickness.
A person will not be brought to faith if he does not want it. God has given people the power to accept it or reject it. However, at the very time God hears the cry of a penitent heart, the windows of heaven are opened to him and blessings descend upon him.
Christ does not despise a person. He healed everyone who came to him while he was in this world.
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He revealed his power and his love to the people who came to him. Only one thing got in the way of receiving his blessing, a lack of faith. He was unable to work miracles in his own town because of the unbelief of the Jews. It was the same in Jerusalem. It is the same in some hearts now. Today we are gathered together in one mind and with faith in him.
Jesus Christ is the healer of the body and the spirit here, amongst us today in this Cathedral. If we have eyes to see, then we will see him standing spiritually before our eyes with the Saints and the Holy Angels helping us this day. The basic teaching of our faith is that we can know that our Lord still lives and stands amongst us. Therefore come to him, see him with your own eyes, tell him of all your ills, and he will help you.
How good are his words, ‘I will never forsake you. I am your companion right to the end.’ He is here today listening to each one’s cry and waiting to bless each one. Take into your hearts and have on your lips the name of Jesus. With him is healing and peace and reconciliation. The person who truly knows Jesus Christ will have all his desires fulfilled.
After this service, continue to hold to prayer and to the Faith. The seed that heals has been planted in your bodies and spirits this day. This day the day of salvation has begun for you. Therefore, don’t be upset if for some healing does not come rapidly. For most people healing will come slowly like a slowly growing seed. God’s work has begun amongst you this day. If you want this seed to keep growing it is your responsibility to water it with a penitent heart, a believing heart, and continuing prayer.
If fifty people come to partake of the Lord’s Supper each one will receive a different blessing according to each one’s faith. Therefore do not be anxious if your think you have little faith but give your whole heart to God. Remember the small quantity of bread and fish with which the thousands were fed. But when those small items were placed in the hands of Christ there was an abundance for the thousands of people. It is the same with your small faith. Present it to him and he will cause it to abound.
We, the preachers of the Mission are travelling people, but the Saviour always stays with you, You will be saved by Christ.
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Hold to the faith. Keep praying. Our Saviour is returning. Therefore, be prepared. Enlist in the spiritual battle against the powers of the world of darkness. Turn to God. Find work in the vocation of Christ, to fulfil the prayer of our Lord, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.’
The Healing Mission.
These are the towns and the dates for Mr Hickson’s Mission.
Wellington, November 6, 7, 8.
Nelson, November 13, 14, 15.
Greymouth, November, 20, 21.
Christchurch, November 27, 28, 29.
Dunedin, December 4, 5, 6.
Timaru, December 11, 12.
Rotorua, December 18, 19.
Archdeacon Simkin, Rev F Bennett and Mr A Turner-Williams, will be at Rotorua on 11th December to help with the running of the Mission. Bennett was the Interpreter for Mr Hickson in Napier and he has asked Bennett to be his Interpreter in Rotorua.
A DECLARATION.
The day proposed at Te Wainui, Whakatane, for a hui at Kaiwaka, Waiapu, has been prohibited by the chiefs of Ngati Porou. Would every tribe in all parts of the country which are under the Ringatu Church please take note of this and remain in your own areas? Do not disregard this notification because if it is disregarded I will declare it to be a transgression against the Missionary Church of the Maori Church of the Diocese of Waiapu, a contravention of people’s rights, and a disregard of the former ways of Ngati Porou. Do not let there be a quarrel or anything. Best wishes.
Paratene Ngata
And the chiefs of Ngati Porou, of Waiapu.
BOARD OF MAORI ETHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH.
This Board has been set up by the Government to seek out the ancient stories, the songs, and the poetry of the Maori people, including the peoples of the Islands. Te Raumoa [H R H Balneavis] is the Secretary, Judge Jones the Chairman, and the members of the Committee are A T Ngata, Doctor Pomare, Doctor Te Rangihiroa, Archdeacon Herbert Williams and Te Peehi [Elsdon Best]. The Committee has advised us that they have agreed to adding a four page supplement to Te Toa Takitini. In these pages will be matters of interest to them.
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People who know the old waiata and stories should send them to one of the members of that Committee or to Te Toa Takitini. Te Toa Takitini will continue to be 16 pages and with the 4 pages from the Board the number of pages will grow to 20 pages a month.
THE REVEREND A O WILLIAMS.
This elder of the Maori People has entered upon the long rest. He had not been ill for very long before he died. He died at Whanganui. Mr Williams was fluent in the Maori language. Right up to his death he did not forsake his Maori people.
He was a son of Edward Williams, a former Judge of the Maori Land Court, and a grandson of Henry Williams, Mr Williams Four-Eyes, who arrived in New Zealand in 1823.
He was ordained as a minister in 1880. In 1882 he became a teacher at Te Raukahikatea school for ministers. In 1885 he went to Putiki, Whanganui. From that year to the present he was not parted from his Whanganui people.
One of his children, W G Williams BA, is also installed as a minister in Whanganui. Another, Ulrick, is a doctor in Whanganui also. Another is a farmer in the Palmerston area. He has one daughter. Te Toa Takitini condoles with the bereaved family. May God give you all, and the peoples of Whanganui, light in this cloud of darkness that has spread over you this day.
Koro, go to your rest, Go to the gracious Lord.
1. THE LAW, ITS MAKING AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION.
A T Ngata, MA, MP.
So that the Maori People may have a clear understanding of this matter, let me begin by explaining the issue of which groups have power to make the laws.
Amongst all the peoples of the world from ancient times there has been a group of people, an individual, or an assembly of people, that has had power to lay down a rule to order how people live, to settle disputes and to punish wrongdoing. The sanction of the rule is that the person or group that sets down the rule has the power to punish if that rule is broken. For some people the King is the authority, for some the Church, for some the assembled leaders, and for some the assembled representatives of the people. Under them, obeying their commands are the law enforcers, soldiers, police
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or other groups with power to uphold the authority of the law. For Maori it is the chief who has power to lay down rules. His people obeyed his instructions and if they disobeyed he would stretch out his hand to strike, to plunder, to confiscate, or take other actions to ensure that his word is fulfilled.
So it is clear to us that this thing, the law, is laid down by a person of authority or a group with authority, and is something recognised as valid by the people. Whether it be a human law or the law of God, it is not recognised as a law unless there are punishments for breaking the rule called a law. For breaking human law the punishments are prison or execution or the seizure of property; for breaking the law of God there is spiritual anguish, the fires of hell, and the gnashing of teeth.
Why has the authority of Maori chiefs diminished? Because there is nothing to back up their words these days. They have lost their strong arms to brandish in support of their words and to terrify people. The Pakeha law has spread a cloak over small and great as a protection from the offended chief. [E toe ana ko te whakaaro ki nga toto o te po, ki nga kauwhau mua, ka kume i roto ko te aroha.]
The thing that is called today New Zealand Law is something devised by the group in authority at a particular time. This paper has been written to show:
A. Who are the Groups with Authority?
B. How do they formulate laws?
C. Who implements the law?
D. Why was the law validated?
A. Who are the groups with authority?
The origin of the law which shelters these islands is in far away England. I have already explained the provisions of the Treaty of Waitangi. This statement about the Government came from there along with its motto: ‘A Government of the people, by the people, for the people.’ When it crossed over to this land it was applied and grew, this being a new country, a young people, and the ropes binding it to the old ways were cut.
So the group that possesses ultimate authority in these islands is the People, called in English, the State. Now, this thing, the People, has hundreds of heads, many voices, and many individuals under that name. Many generations of learned Pakeha have sought for a narrower embodiment of this thing called the People.
This quest has resulted in wars and bloodshed. Kings, nobility, and leaders of the People have been in contention. The King has said that he alone has authority given him from heaven.
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The response to this was that his head was cut off. The nobles and the King said that they alone were the ones with authority, certainly not the common people. The response to this was that the People rose up and their army of soldiers entered the place where the nobility met and threw them out. Right down to recent times the Pakeha have been arguing over who is able to vote for the representatives of the People called Members of Parliament. It was said before that only men of property could have the vote. For many generations this was fought over by those who said that the right to vote should be extended to everyone, men and women, over the age of twenty-one, whether they owned property or not. It is only yesterday that this rule was made; that women were at last given the right to vote and that women were at last able to stand for Parliament.
The collected statement of the principles, the answers to the four important questions asked above, are in the Law called ‘The Constitution Act’ which says:
(i) The Governor represents the King in these islands.
(ii) The group of Government Ministers [Cabinet] acts as an Advisory Council to the Governor.
(iii) Parliament decides who those Ministers should be. They are chosen from the members of the majority party in Parliament.
(iv) The Governor (advised by his Ministers) appoints members to the Upper House (our ‘House of Lords’).
(v) The people as a whole elect the members of the Lower House, called the House of Representatives of the People.
Now that Constitution Act bestow on each of these the rules they are to follow when gathered together. But the person who has power over all below them is the man or woman who has reached the age of twenty-one and can say that that one or this one will be a member.
The majority of the members elected will determine who will be leader and that person will be called the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister will call some of his companions from his party to be Ministers and they, collectively, are called the Government. That Government will send acts or regulations to the Governor who will issue them in the name of the King.
Now, not one of these groups has the power to make laws alone; the Governor cannot act on his own, his Ministers cannot act on their own, the members of Parliament cannot act on their own. However, were they to gather in the same place at the same time, and convene an assembly, and make their rules, and negotiate
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with each other, and come to an agreement which is written down and agreed together, that would be a valid law.
B. Making the Law.
We come to the second question; how do the groups make the law? This needs a long answer. Let me explain here the workings of Parliament. Parliament is the gathering of the groups that make the law. The word ‘Parliament’ comes from the French language; in Maori it would be ‘he korero huihui’ [a coming together for discussion]. Now the bodies that gather in a single place are the King (represented here by the Governor), the Upper House (the Legislative Council), and the Lower House (the representatives elected by the People). The Ministers of the Government are members from the Upper and Lower Houses. No-one can be a Minister if they are not a member of one of those Houses. They are the agents of the King as well as of the People; they are the people who bring forward proposals to be discussed by Parliament.
The proposals they make are sent to the Governor and he forwards them to the House; they are then known as a ‘Bill.’ That is, his proposal is uncooked food and it is for the two Houses to cook it. Once it is cooked it is called an ‘Act.’ If it remains uncooked and is thrown out then it is called a defeated bill. Some Bills having been sent first to the Lower House for the members to discuss, may be amended and passed or rejected. If they are passed by the Lower House they are sent to the Upper House. If the members of that House find that it is defective in some parts they will amend it. But their amendment has to go back to the Lower House to be approved. If the Bill is questioned by both Houses, a Committee made up of members of both Houses sits and discusses it together. When their deliberations are concluded it is sent to each House to be approved.
Sometimes a Bill is sent to the Upper House first. It may be a Bill from a Government Minister who sits in that House. When it has passed through that House it goes down to the Lower House. This is how things are done between the two Houses. One kind of Bill cannot go first to the Upper House and that is a Bill dealing with money, with taxes, or with money being borrowed by the Government for major projects. These Bills are first considered in the Lower House because in that House only are the people elected by the people as their representatives, and it is the People who have to pay the taxes and duties. It is their wealth, their land, that is the source of the money being borrowed by the Government. Therefore it has been laid down that they alone can lay down proposals about monetary matters, and not the Upper House whose members are chosen by the Crown and not by the People by way of an election. The Upper House is not able to amend
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such Bills, but they may reject them. However the Upper House is not keen to reject the important Bills dealing with money passed by the Lower House lest that House be angry. Most of the Government Ministers are there, and the Government may ask the Governor to fill the Upper House with people who will agree with those finance Bills.
When a Bill has been passed by both Houses, the King (through his spokesman, the Governor) will sign it and the Bill will become Law, and both Houses will be notified that the Governor has assented to and signed it. Consequently the Kings Arms are at the top of each Law in the Books of Statutes. When the Courts of the land see that symbol they know that the Law has been truly passed by Parliament.
C. Implementation of the Laws.
Parliament’s work is finished when meeting together they have turned their proposals into law and they have been adopted. Now if the law is just left lying there it is just a dead body. If it is awoken it will rise up with hands and feet and voice to speak to the People. It is the Government’s responsibility to implement the laws made by Parliament so that they fulfil their purpose. It is the Government that is to implement the ideas of Parliament written in the law.
These things, the laws, speak in two ways. One is by saying, Do this. Now this law of theirs will not be generally applicable, (kei hara te Kawantanga), because that law is saying that something is to be done, some work carried out or some money to be paid. Someone says, ‘The Governor, or a Minister, or a group is able to do something.’ This is not a voice delivering a command but a voice which gives authority. The person or the group may exercise that authority; it is saying that they may use that authority or they may not. The second way in which the law speaks, and this is the case with most of the laws made, is to give authority to the Governor or to his Ministers, or to some bodies such as the County Councils, the Boards, or others, to carry out what they are obliged to do under the authority of the law.
The Governor, his Minister, another person, or a group are not able to do something outside the law. So Parliament meets regularly and amends laws each year. A person who has made a law and looks forward with human foresight, may think that he has foreseen all the consequences. But as it is implemented he comes across other issues, other problems that he had not foreseen. He will wait for the next Parliament to correct the parts he had overlooked. Each year he may make changes.
So, during the years of the war, it was realised by the
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wise people in Parliament that it would be wise to place an embargo on mortgages so that those whose money it was could not demand it, that became impossible. It was unfortunate but would have weakened the support for the war. With the ending of the war came the lean times which afflicted the farms on both islands. Parliament said that mortgages would continue to be embargoed for another year. There have been two, then three, amendments to this law, and this year the embargo has been extended until the end of 1924. Men may have their ideas but it is God who determines the times.
It is the Government, the group of Ministers, who see to the implementation of the law. But we mustn’t think that it is the Ministers who do this and that. No, it is the officials in the many Government departments under the Ministers. So the Minister for Maori Affairs has many powers under the law with respect to the Maori People. The Department for Maori Affairs is his work force, the body that sends out instructions. But the important decisions, the final word rests with him. Issues that are clear and issues that are small are dealt with by those under him. Matters where there is uncertainty or which raise new issues are sent up by the Department to the top where the Minister sits for him to decide.
It is the same with all other Ministers and their departments. The Minister is at the top, then come the Secretaries, then the clerks, then the advisers, then the inspectors, doing the work allocated to each of them.
This is why sometimes matters seem to take a long time to be dealt with. The Minister is very high up at the top and matters face a long climb to reach him, and then they may come down again to the people below, or to advisers elsewhere. These are paid servants who don’t want to be too bothered. Therefore the matter starves to death in the bends of a room in one of the many Government offices. This is where the Member of Parliament plays his part by taking the matter in hand and bringing it before the Minister lest it be lost in the huge flock of matters that are sent to the Minister.
The Interpreters of the Law.
A law made by Parliament is written in English. Some times the language trips up when the experts make a mistake in the formulation. This then remains as a matter of dispute. There are experts whose job is to clarify the meaning of, to interpret, the law. They look at the wording of that law and they say, ‘This is what Parliament had in mind when they made this law.’ The Supreme Court is the main interpreter of the laws made by Parliament. That Court cannot be prevailed upon by Ministers to say what they want.
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It is an independent body, a sacred body, an awesome body. The Government cannot dismiss one of the Judges of the Supreme Court; that can only be done by a vote of the two Houses of Parliament. The pay of the Judges of the Supreme Court is determined under a separate Act, an unchangeable Act, which Parliament cannot vote on lest that become a way in which Government can influence those Judges. Hence the great respect and power commanded by the Supreme Court. It is set upright above the people and it ensures that the law is correctly applied between leaders and the common people, the great and the small, the Government and the ordinary person. But because the Judges of the Supreme Court are ordinary people there are times when their decisions are disputed by learned lawyers. Their decision is then sent abroad to be considered by the King’s Council (the Privy Council), which is the head Court of the Empire. That Court will approve or reject the Supreme Court decision. Their decision is the ultimate clarification of and true interpretation of the law.
2. FINANCING THE DOMINION’S WORKS
We have made it clear in that chapter concerning the Law that it is the Government that implements and enforces the laws made by Parliament. If one looks at the books of legislation passed by Parliament each year, one finds that most of the laws relate to the money needed to finance all that is done in the Dominion; laying down ways in which money is raised and setting out the ways in which money is to be used. The major contenti0ns in Parliament, the fault lines between one group of members and another, are over how money should be spent.
These are the main things on which the Government spends money:
1. Paying the Governor, providing for the Governor’s needs, and upkeeping his residences.
2. Paying the Judges of the Supreme Court and for their travelling.
3. Paying the Members of Parliament, the officials of the two Houses of Parliament, and all their expenses.
4. Paying the interest on money borrowed by the Government here and abroad.
5. Paying old-age pensions, widow’s pensions, or war pensions.
6. Paying the officials of the many Government Departments – their travelling, their books, their accommodation, their pensions.
7. Paying for major works in the Dominion – building railways, making roads and bridges, providing telegraph wires,
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schools, offices, electricity and the things associated with it, and lighthouses and responding to the myriad demands that the people make on the Government, daily, weekly, annually, for money for this or that project.
8. Contributing to the cost of protecting these parts of the Empire, lest they are put to the edge of the club by another nation. So Parliament voted £100,000 this year as new Zealand’s contribution to the cost of the naval base being built by England in Singapore.
A very large amount is spent each year on these things, all of them indispensable. These are the amounts this year:
The Railways 6,050,221
The Post and Telegraph Office 2,237,731
Schools 2,640,738
Department of Health 269,967
Mental Asylums 295,606
Naval Vessels 339,397
The Army 376,354
The Police 402,406
There are the other thirty-nine Government Departments.
The money voted by Parliament for the running of the Government Departments this year up to 31st March, 1924, is £15,431,206. Over and above this is the interest on the great debt of the Dominion which is more than eight million pounds. Also over and above this is the money voted to build roads, new railways, post offices, schools, and provide electricity and similar things. The money voted by Parliament for these works is £6,021,313. But most of this money is borrowed from abroad by the Government.
The important job of the Ministers and the Government is to choose from among the many things the people want done and which things should have priority. It is left to the Members from each area when they assemble to argue that some of the People’s money should be spent in their area.
The Maori People are hidden among these many Government matters. We ask for a school to be built for our children; we travel on the railways; we post our letters and send telegrams; we are protected by our police and by the warships and the soldiers; the Department of Health makes provision for us; and we approach the Government for every need. These things cannot be provided if there is no money coming in year by year.
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Those of us who are farmers understand; his important work is to decide, on the basis of how much money he thinks the farm will bring in in a particular year, which of the projects he has in mind he will be able to carry out. It is the same with the Government. It is like a farmer but its farm is the whole of New Zealand.
This is one part of the lecture on money and the way to spend it. In another part we will look into the ways of raising money to carry out these projects.
(In the December issue we will print Part 2 (b), ‘The Ways in which the Government raises Money.’ There is no room for it in this paper. – Editor)
THE TRIBAL TERRITORY OF THE UREWERA.
In the Commission’s programme of consolidating the land interests of Tuhoe, it has arrived at the inland area around Ruatahuna, and we are seeing the burden imposed by the Act dealing with the costs of surveying. When the 1921 law was made, the hope was that a secure title would be established under the Exchange Law for each Maori section, and that it would be properly surveyed so that it would be in a satisfactory position to get mortgages. It was laid down there that the land would provide the surveying costs, and that the Commission could take part of the land to cover the surveying costs. Parts of the Ruatahuna Block are valued at four shillings an acre and if the appropriate amount is taken to pay for the surveying then little is left for the owners. Now, in the Washing-up Bill this year the Commissioners are empowered to issue a title on the basis of a photographic map which the Head Surveyor agrees is an appropriate map as the basis for a title. The photograph is of the land relating closely to the borders though they are not yet marked on the land. The days will come, when such lands are being settled, that it will be right to complete the surveying.
At the request of the Tuhoe hapu some forest reserves are being established on Government lands. The Commission will specify those lands and will draw up a list of names of the trustees for those places. The alleged purpose of these reservations is that they are to preserve the trees. But, in fact, it is to enable Tuhoe to roam in their forests which they had sold to the Government and to kill birds there. But let us keep that to ourselves; don’t publish it in the streets of Wellington.
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THE TE ARAWA LAKES.
One of the clauses of the Washing-up Bill dealt with the completion of the Te Arawa Claim regarding their lakes. The arrangement last year was that Parliament would vote to pay £6000 a year. This new amendment of the law says that the money will be paid each year ‘without further appropriation than this Act’; it will not depend on a vote of Parliament. This is very good; we will not have to wait anxiously each year for Parliament to approve the Budget.
Another clause deals with Te Rotokakahi [Green Lake]. Tuhourangikept this outside the arrangements made with the Government, saying thast there should be a separate. Now the Act sets up a Board to manage this lake. It will have no fewer than six members with five belonging to Tuhourangi and Ngati Rumatawera. That Board will manage the lake and the islands in the lake.
One of the provisions of the agreement signed in 1921 between Mr Bell (for the Government) and Te Aare, Ngata and Rewini (for Te Arawa), was that the Government would pay Te Arawa £2000 to reimburse Te Arawa for the expenses incurred in bringing the claim about the lakes. This amount was to be paid in four instalments of £500 a year. But at the request of some of the members of the Te Arawa Board it has been agreed that £1000 will be paid this year. Within this amount is the £100 the Minister of Maori Affairs allocated to Tawa (Captain Mair).
Soon the names of the Board Members will be Gazetted along with the regulation passed last year. It has taken a long time to Gazette the Members of the Board because some have resigned and it was not easy to find replacements.
MOTATAU.
One of the important matters competed this year in the Washing-up Bill was Clause 16 dealing with Motatau Number 2, a block of land in the Tai Tokerau [The Far North]. The issues around this land were raised by Tau Henare who had become Member in 1914. Every year he was a Member he brought this matter up and urged the Government to settle it. Last year the Minister of Maori Affairs asked the Chief Judge of the Maori Land Court to investigate it. The problem with this land was that it was foolishly run by the Maori Land Board of the Tokerau district. A great deal of money was spent on making roads on that land which had to be financed by the land. The money came from the Government in the form of mortgages. The proposal was that the trees on the land should meet this obligation, but because of the bad management by the Board the trees were disposed of, and the land leased out at ridiculously low leases, so that the Government’s money could not be repaid
[16]
and it remains as a burden on the land.
On the basis of the Report of the Chief Judge last year, the Government agreed to bring in the following law:
“1. In partial liquidation of a charge or sum due under section 274 of the principal Act in respect of an advance for roading to open up the said land for settlement, there shall be paid out of the Public Works Fund without further appropriation than this Act the sum of four thousand five hundred pounds.
2. For a like purpose a further sum of one thousand pounds shall be paid by the Tokerau District Maori Land Board, out of moneys to the credit of its Profit and Loss Account.”
3. The Board shall also pay any money it is holding in respect to this land from trees and leases.
The remaining money is to be divided by the Maori Land Court amongst the many subdivisions of Motatau Number 2, and the Board may retain the profit from those parts to make such payments as are directed by the Court. The parts of the land that are seen by the Court to be free of this obligation may be returned to the owners. The Minister of Maori Affairs may return parts under the Board’s management which have not been leased, to the Maori, but those parts will still bear the burden of such payments as are arranged by the Court.
The Maori Land Court has been directed to work on the problems of this land this summer.
Thank you, my friend Tau, for your persistence in working for a settlement of this problem faced by your people.
CALENDAR.
November 11 Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity Green
Amos 3, Hebrews 4.14 & 5
Amos 5, John 2
18 Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity Green
Micah 4 & 5.1-8, Hebrews 11.1-17
Micah 6, John 6.1-22
25 Sunday before Advent Green
Ecclesiastes 11 & 12, James 4
Haggai 2.1-10, John 9.1-39
30 St Andrew Red
(Pray for the spread of the Gospel
throughout the world.)
December 2 Advent Sunday Violet
Isaiah 1, 1 Peter 4.7-end
Isaiah 3, John 12.20-end
(1) Use the Advent Sunday Collect every day
in Advent.
(2) All the offerings, Pakeha and Maori, this Sunday are for the expenses of the Maori Church. Send them to the Diocesan Secretary, Napier.
(3) This is the beginning of the Church Year.
9 Second Sunday in Advent Violet
Isaiah 5, John 2.13-end
Isaiah 11.1-11, John 17
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