NATIVE LAND COURT MATTERS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12531, 28 June 1906, Page 8

NATIVE LAND COURT MATTERS.

•■♦ "CHAOS AND CONFUSION." (special to "the pkess.") » WELLINGTON, June 27. "Perhaps tho worst managed Depart- ' inent in tho Public Service is that I pertaining to tho Native Land Court. , ' !So writes a correspondent of the "Post" under tho signature of "AngloMaori." "No system whatever exists,'' Iho says, "and ull is chaos and conj fusion. Courts are advertised to be I hold at certain places, and on giren dates. Huge 'cause' lists, containing obsolete claims to land, that have been dealt with finally many years previously, aro printed at vast expense, and, of toner than otherwise, when the natives assemble from all parts of the island, to prosecute their respective claims, they are told that the Court has been adjourned for a few days, weeks, or months, as tiie case may be. They again assemble, only to be informed of fresh adjournments, and so ! the farce goes"on, till the suitors, bav- | ing spent their money and wasted I their time in vain, go away in despair. I Numerous appeals—.several hundred, in f ac t—some of which are over a dozen ' years old, are still outstanding, . anr! thi'o thi> prC'tri't'ss of thy North Island is retarded through valuable native lands boing kept idle, and the unfortunate owners in a state of semi-star-vation."

Referring to the appointment of Judges, the correspondent says:—'For inrny years the Judges have been tuo few ia number to enno with the everincreasing work, hampered :is they have been by perpetual interference, but it is now proposed to appoint three 'sucking lawyers' as Judges. The miserable salaries hitherto paid will never attract solicitors or barristers of any standing in their profession. Moreover, as the ownership of native land is entirely ruled by "Maori custom and usage. , there is something Gilbcrtian in the new proposal of appointing; men to deal with estate —valued at many millions—who are absolutely strangers to the Maori language, or the intricate forms of tenure under which the natives havo inherited their ancestral lands. It is rather" singular, moreover, that most of the glaring errors in the past, and the resultant ruinous litigation and expense alik« to native aud European suitors, have nil been caused by 'lawyer Judges.' Yet the Government, with a fatuons disregard of past experiences, seems bent upon carrying out this fatal policy." For Children's Hacking Cough at night, Woodß , Great Peppermint Cure, Is Gd and lis Gd per bottle. 3