THE ORAKEI BLOCK.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1913, Page 7

THE ORAKEI BLOCK.

. APMAt AGAnBT TBANSI_Jt. REJECTED BY THE COURT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WEIJ.INGTON. this day. •■ The Appeal .Court: gave judgment* to--1 day iv the case of the Solicitor-General Iv. the Tokerau District Maori Land- , Board and Charles John Schmauer, heard •at the October sitting. A majority (Sir Robert Stout dissenting) held that the Court had; jurisdiction to> partitioni the Isuid in dispute, the Orakei native reserve, ' and there was nothing to prevent the. i natives giving a transfer and" the Board coniirmingr it. A writ of prohibition was ; refused, with costs to Schmauer id the Court below, as on the claim' for £200 and costs of the appeal on the middle ! scale and as from a distance. ■ The above applies to the well-known ; Orakei block, in connection with which ; the City Council promoted a bill recently called the Orakei Model Suburb Bill, to enable the city to purchase or eon- , vert the land into a model suburb. The , bill, after meeting violent opposition, [ was rejected by Parliament, but before it was even in print the natives' had' sold considerable interests in the land ' to private individuals, and the tranafen. were awaiting confirmation by the J Maori Land Board. The Ward Government, at the suggestion of the City Council, then instituted an action, in which the right of the natives to sell was attacked, the contention on the part of the Crown- being > that the partition orders of the Native Land Court, under which the natives > held their titles; were invalid. The action was obviously to defat the purchasers and to assist by means of the ' consequent delay the project of the City Council. A test case was taken in the transaction of purchase by a Mr. Olsen, who shortly afterwards died, and whose . executor, Mr. Schnauer, was made the : defendant. The test case, was removed to the 1 Court of Appeal for argument, and there j ■ argued in August last year, judgment j , being reserved. In the judgment now given, the right of the natives to sell ' has been upheld, and the validity of their titles established; all the contentions of the Crown being rejected. Sir John Findlay, X.C.. argued the case on behalf of the natives, and Mr. Schnaeur, instructed by Messrs. JEarl and Kent, and the Solicitor-General appeared for the Crown, instructed by the Hon. J. A. Tole, K.C., Crown Solicitor.