WON'T COMPROMISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 12

WON'T COMPROMISE.

FULL RATES DEMANDED.

COUNCIL AND NATIVE LANDS. (By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) GISBORNE, this day. The determination not to compromise on amounts due in rates 011 native lands was reached by the Waiapu County Council at its monthly meeting. The council has sacrificed claims for thousands of pounds by way of compromise agreements on the basis that half a loaf is better than 110 bread, but in future it proposes to demand full satisfaction for its claims. The matter was brought up by a letter from the registrar of the Native Land Court, suggesting that the board should accept reduced payment in regard to rate claims on two native blocks in rcspeet of which the registrar had been appointed receiver under vesting orders. The view taken by the council was that considerable expense had been undertaken to secure vesting orders, and that to accept a compromise would also create a precedent which would make it difficult in future to secure the payment of native rates. Members of the council were unanimous in their determination. The chairman, Mr. D. W. W. Williams, said that after waiting 12 months from the time the council got the charging order to the time when the vesting order was made a further month had been allowed for the lodging of objections by the native owners of the properties affected. These were the first vesting orders secured by the council in regard to overdue native rates, and a lot would depend upon the manner in which the council conducted further proceedings.