AUCKLAND NOTES.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13611, 21 December 1909, Page 7

AUCKLAND NOTES.

(SPECIAL TO "THE PRESS.")

AUCKLAND, December 20. The Rotorua natives belonging to the Arawa tribes have, I learn, initiated legal proceedings to establish their claim to the ownership of Late Rotorua. Their claim is based ofe native custom, by which they contend they are the owners of the land covered by the lake. It is understood that there is a probability of the Court of Enquiry into the charges brought against Captain Knyvett being open to the public. The charge that he had been guilty of gross insubordination, inasmuch as he had criticised the administration of the Defence Department, has now been disposed of, and four others substituted. He is now charged on four counts with having committed an act to the prejudice of good order and military discipline, in that in his letter to the Defence Department he made use of the following expressions:—(l) "Preventing any possibility of a scandal leaking out to the public of the want of tact and interference of the Chief of the General Staff"; (2) "I have documents in my possession which, if published, would have created a scandal in volunteering throughout the whole Dominion"; (3) "Since these articles appeared I have been approached by many officers throughout the whole of the' North island who have had similar experiences of the unwarranted interference and unexampled officialism of Colonel Robin" • (4) "It seems to mc that the Chief of the General Staff has personally gone out of his way to oelittle, discourage and damp the enthusiasm of the whole volunteer movement."