MAORI CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22249, 13 November 1937, Page 16

MAORI CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION

GOVERNMENT TO HEAR CASE SALE OF NATIVE LAND AND RESERVES [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON. November 12.

The Government has agreed to receive three members of the Ngaitahu tribe from the South Island to discuss the claim which the tribe has been pressing for many years for compensation arising from the sale of native land and reserves. This was announced to-day by Mr E. T. Tirikatene, member of Parliament for Southern Maori, who said that negotiations would take place with the Government at the end of the present session of Parliament.

Mr Tirikatene explained that the Ngaitahu claim involved 12,500,000 acres of land and affected many descendants of the tribe in the South Island, particularly many living in Canterbury and Southland. A Royal Commission had investigated the claim in 1920 and, basing their assessment on a standard of id an acre, had recommended making a payment of £354.000. In 1935. Mr Tirikatene added, the then Government made an offer of £IOO,OOO as final settlement of the claim. This offer had not been accepted by members of the Ngaitahu Trust Board, nor by Mr Tirikatene himself as one of the negotiators. "This grievance has received very little consideration during the last 99 years," Mr Tirikatene said. "It is a genuine claim arid time alone cannot wipe it out. The present Government must be complimented for the consideration granted my people in deciding to meet our three representatives after the conclusion of the present session of Parliament."