MINING CASE IN NATIVE LAND COURT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 277, 29 November 1897, Page 2

MINING CASE IN NATIVE LAND COURT.

The Native Land Court (Judge Mair) has been engaged at the Thames all last Wednesday and Thursday in hearing the case re tlie Mount Morgan special claim. The applicant, Busby, pegged off and .applied for the land of Kairaumati blocks as a special claim. The freeholder, Chambers, objected to tbe Warden granting the license. Mr Jackson Palmer, for Busby, put in an agreement of 1807 ceding by tbe Ngatitamatera tribe all their lands from the south of Coromandel to Cape Colville for mining. This agreement Avas validated by the Auckland Goldfields Validation Act, 1869. Mr McGregor for Mr Chambers contended at the Warden's Court that the Kairaumati blocks did not come within the provisions of the agreement of 18G7, as that only bound the lands of the Ngati-tamatera tribe, and that the native owners of Kairaumati blocks had liecn Ngati-nininga, and not Ngatitamatera. The Warden granted the license, and Chambers appealed to the Supreme Court. Mr Justice Conolly, under the Native Land Acts, referred the question to the Native Land Court. At the Native Land Court Mr Jackson Palmer called Mr James Mackey, Nakapa Whaununga (a bead chief), and five native Avitnesses, Avhile Mr McGregor called Mr Preece and three native Avitnesses. Mr McGregor in his address contended the Ngati-Pininga Avere a distinct trilve even though they were connections with Ngati-tamatera and therefore the latter tribe could not bind tbe lands of the former by the agreement of 1867. Mr Jackson Palmer said: "The evidence shoAved that there were only six tribes in the Avhole of Coromandel peninsula, namely the four tribes or descendants of Maratuahu, and the Ta .vera and Ngatipaoa tribes, who were given land by the Maratuahu tribes, therefore there Avas no Ngatipininga tribe (_Avi), but they Avere only a branch (hapu) of the Ngatitamatera tribe. In tracing doAyn the genealogy of the tribe (Whakapapa) from Tamatera, their ancestor, the natives showed that Tamatera's descendant, the fifth generation doAvn, namely Katohau, married Pininga, and their children became Ngati-Pininga or a hapu or branch of the Ngatitamatera. And as Pininga Avas only the daughter of a Ngati-raukau chief from Waitera the children of Pininga could get none of the Coromandel lands through their mother but only through their father, tbe descendant of Tamatera. Therefore the Ngati-tamatera had the ' mana' over these lands, and could make the treaty for their cession to the Government for'Goldmining in 1567-" . The Court reserved judgment.