WARNED OFF.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18680, 1 May 1926, Page 17

WARNED OFF.

MAORIS AND THEIR TIMBER, DISPUTE WITH SAW-MILLERS. (SrECUL TO "TBI IXESS.") AUCKLAND, April SO. The trouble which has been brewing for some time between the Ellis and Burnand Timber Co., and the native owners of the great tract of timber country near Mangapeehi, from which the company obtains its supplies, reached a climax this morning, when the company's log train from the mill was stopped bv the natives at the boundary of their land. They ordered the driver to go nj further, as the company's rights bad been terminated. The driver at once sent for the manager of the mill, but when he arrived, he was served with a formal notice that the company had committed breaches of its agreement with the natives, that the agreement had been declared null and void, and that any employees of the company found upon the land would be regarded as trespassers. Apparently the manager recognised that the natives were in earnest, for the locomotive was sent back to Mangapeehi. The line is blocked at the junction of the branches of Pukemako and Mahai, but the owners allowed a horse truck with food-aupplies and postal matter to proceed to these settlements. The cause of the trouble is the alleged failure on the part of the company to carry out an agreement drawn up in January of last year, which provided a 2s royalty for totara, and lOd for all othor timber, in lieu of old royalties of Is and 4d, respectively. The increased rate has not been paid, the company contending that it is not payable until the agreement ha s been approved by the Native Land Board, while the owners hold that it was expressly provided that the difference between the old and new royalties should be paid by the company into a trust fund until the agreement is approved. | The owners also complain that the com-) pany has uot honoured an unwritten agreement to supply them with timber at cost price. The natives have erected a locked gate across the line at the junction, and at present the company's supply of logs to the big mill at Mangapeehi, cne of the largest in the Dominion, is completely cut off. The manager states that ho has sufficient logs on hand to keep the mill working for two or three week. The firm employs a very large number of men.