MAORI LAND CLAIMS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18924, 12 February 1927, Page 17

MAORI LAND CLAIMS.

SOME ANCIENT HISTORY, (PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEOBAII.) WAITARA, February 11, The hearing of tho Maoris' claim in regard to lands confiscated after the Maori War was continued before the Royal Commission at Waitara to-day. Mr D. S. Smith, counsel for the petitioning natives, continued his opening address, which had occupied all the lirst day. He contended that the Crown broke three provisions of the Treaty, of Waitangi. He submitted that the Government was at fault, and the confiscations were unjust. Mr Justice Sim asked if counsel would go so far as to say there ought not to nave been any confiscations. Mr Smith submitted that the Taranaki confiscations from Waitara to Waitotara, which came in under the petitions, were all unjust, and apart from inquiry number one, before tho Commission, which dealt only with the question of whether the quantity of all confiscations exceeded what was just and fair in the Taranaki claims. Counsel said he was entitled to rely on the Treaty of Waitangi, and with the whole circumstances taken in to account, he was entitled to reparation. Counsel dealt with the 1 causes leading up to the Waikato and second Tara* naki Ware, the responsibility for which, he endeavoured to prove, rested entirely with the Government and it» Ministers. Failure to* give effect to Sir George Grey's decision that Waitara should be abandoned after _ the natives had quietly allowed the military to take possession of Tataraimaka block, was the primary cause of the Oakiira insurrection. This was not murder in the native sense, but an assertion of their claims to the Oakura lands, while the Government's subsequent threats resulted in general war, the outcome of the inadequacy of the native policy of the European Government. Waitara was ultimately given back to the natives on May 13th, 1863, but tTie talk of confiscation in the proclamation which appeared in July 1863 was the fulfilment of the native fears. Counsel's address is still proceeding. Great interest is being displayed by the natives in the district.