TAUPO TIMBER LANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 185, 7 August 1930, Page 10

TAUPO TIMBER LANDS.

INVOLVED NATIVE LEASE,

ENORMOUS CLAIMS SUBMITTED,

| (By Telegraph. —Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. Claims exceeding £500,000 have been submitted to the Aotea Maori Land Board in connection With the affairs of tho Tongariro Timber Company, which some years ago entered into a contract with tho natives in respect of timber rights on a large area of West Taupo timber country. An amendment of the Native Land Act last session removed the embargo that had been placed on the natives soeking to enforce their contract with the Tongariro Timber Company, and appointed the Aotea Maori Land Board as their agents for tho purpose of recovering the lands affected by the agreements with the company. The Land Board, according to a statement tabled by the Native Minister in the House today, gave notice to the Tongariro Timber Company on November 19 that tho contract would be terminated unless within six months it paid £26,562 due in respect of royalties, and completed a railway which tho lessees had contracted to build. In the meantime claims were received by the Land Board arising out of past proceedings of the company, as follow: —Morrison, Spratt and Morrison, £100; Sir J. P. Houfton's estate, £14,000; Cammell, Laird and Co., £20,720; Bertram Phillips, £29,700; C. W. Neilson, £569; W. H. Grace, £4500; To Heuheu Grace Party, £62,326; K. D s Duncan (inclusive of £2000 in another claim), £13,800; Armstrong, Whityworth Co., £15,000; Anglo-French and Belgian Corporation, £1787; Tongariro Timber Co., Ltd., £330,000; Egmont Box Co., £31,000; total, £523,503. The board was advised that most of tlie claims were made as creditors of the company, and therefore could not be considered. A further question arose regarding the Egmont Box Company, which was mixed up with the claim of Bertram Phillips, to whom the Egmont Company agreed to sell timber rights in 1919 for £13,000, and the board is legally advised that the Egmont Box Company has some claim upon the owners. The board, as agent for the owners, may, it states, find some difficulty in recognising such a large claim without some judicial pronouncement, bui; the matter appears to be eminently one for amicable arrangement. It is proposed, therefore, to place all the documents before the Native Affairs Committee. On the Minister's motion the papers were referred, as suggested, to this committee.