Just one point. I know the President of the Board, but I do not know this Maori Trustee. Who is this Maori Trustee who is to decide on my loan?

Mr Ropiha, who is head of the Department, also holds the office of Maori Trustee. The position of Maori Trustee was constituted in 1921 to take over from the Public Trust Office all Maori matters, and particularly the administration of Maori reserves—for instance the West Coast Settlement Reserves in Taranaki. For a long time the Maori Trustee office was a separate department, but in 1934 it was amalgamated with the Department of Maori Affairs. About 1946 it was found necessary to split up his work, which had previously all been done in Wellington, and provide for it to be handled in districts at the District Offices of the Department. Apart from the work now taken over from the Boards, the Maori Trustee acts as trustee for Maori minors, and persons under disability, and may be appointed to administer Maori estates, as well as administering Maori Reserves and paying out the rents from these.

You have said the abolition of the Maori Land Boards makes practically no difference to the Maori people. Why have they been abolished then?

The Boards were originally set up (under the name of ‘Maori Land Councils’) in 1900 for the cutting up, leasing, and sale of Maori lands vested in them, and were composed of representative Maoris and an appointed president. A good deal of quarrelling and animosity arose out of the election and appointment of Maori members, so that the number of these was whittled away, until, in 1913, it was provided that the Boards would consist of the Judge and Registrar of the Maori Land Court district only. About this time there were moves afoot to abolish the Boards but because of a change in government, and because the Boards were legal bodies and could hold land, etc., this step was not taken. The Boards as they existed were convenient bodies to carry out different jobs as they arose, and gradually acquired a number of miscellaneous powers and functions.

When land development and the Maori housing scheme started, the Department had only a very small organisation outside Wellington. For that reason the enormous amount of field work, accounts work, and so on that suddenly became necessary outside Wellington was largely given to the Maori Land Boards to handle. In performing these functions the close contact of the Boards with the Maori people concerned was of great benefit, and much valuable assistance was given to Maori farming and housing, in particular.

(Continued on page 50)