MAORI RENTALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 44, 21 February 1940, Page 5

MAORI RENTALS.

THE STATE'S CARE. STORY OF AN HEIRESS. STAMP DUTY'S TRIUMPH. (By J.C.) In the pidgin-Maori jargon that is •necessary in official transactions, under the native land laws, the next-of-kin in a deceased person's estate was recently informed by the Departmental trust T. authorities that in order to "tango," or "seize," the "moni" accruing to her as rents she must go to the "Tari" (office, from the early missionary's "study")

and apply to be appointed as "kairiwhi" (legatee, literally one to whom something is left, from the word "leave"), and finally when the moni - had been tango'd she must "laina i te , rihiiti" (sign the receipt). Where necessary the "Pohimahita" (post- ■ master) would carry out the transaction for the Department. The operation of becoming seized or possessed of the accrued revenue from the estate—it concerned a West Coast iamily whose landed property consisted • »»f scattered pieces managed by the Native Trust—interested me as : a J beautiful illustration of the fatherly care exercised by the Government in saving those of Maori blood the trouble of looking after their lands themselves. I - It illustrates also the system of Maori jf "landlordism" under which the so- * wealthy and arrogant Taranaki Maoris, for example, are battening (or is it fattening?) on the lifeblood of the industrious and heartbroken pakeha settler. The woman herein after to be styled ' the "kai-tono" and then the -r"kai- £ riwhi"—the applicant and the receiver ••?■ —is of quarter-caste blood, and an heiress—to a certain extent —as her fc late mother's eldest daughter. When the will had been read . And the matter of estate discussed, it* firet step wa» to apply for*

succession order to the estate, which consisted of interests in various blocks of land. Stamp duty bad to be paid. This was no mere matter of a twopenny stamp on a receipt: The stamp duty in fact was charged as soon as the claimant had put in her application for a succession order. She was told at one office that the duty was three shillings. She paid this sum, marvelling at the remarkable value of a "pane-Kingi" ("King's-head," the usual Maori term for a postage stamp) as she signed form* and this and that. It was then that she discovered she must pay three shillings in respect of each and every block in which she was interested. This business over, she prepared to receive her rent money in the four blocks. The amounts due were as follow:— n. a. Patuha 3 0 Matarikoriko 1 0 Ngatirßahirl, Nos. 6 and 14;.. 4 7 Mangapapa, 1C S Total 9 3

With paper and pencil and the assistance, of her family, the recipient worked out the sum before she left the office of the Kooti Whenua Maori. "Marvellous!" said the "Kai-riwhi." "I'd better get out of this office quick, before they think of some more stamp duty. My goodness, I'm lucky to have only four blocks of land. If I'd many more they'd have the shimmy off me, they would that, before they let me go." "Now, now," said one of the tribe, soothingly, "you musn't say such things about a Government Department. It's not their fault, it's not anyone's fault. It's just the System and the Regulations. The first thing necessary to keep the System going is the stamp duty." "Is there anything in the Treaty of Waitangi about stamp duty on Maori land?" the heiress asked. "There, there now; poor Governor Hobson could not think of everything. But a word in your, ear. I'll whisper it." The magic word whispered was: "Oil!" "Oil*" ~ • , «Yes Oil. Taihoa! You just wait a bit. You'll eee! Just hang on." So the heiress and family are hanging on for something to turn up. It doesn't matter much where it is. Hope springs eternal in the human .breast. And stamp duty is-helping to win the war.