Maori Claim To Foreshore Of Ninety Mile Beach

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29067, 2 December 1959, Page 19

Maori Claim To Foreshore Of Ninety Mile Beach

(New Zeaiana Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Dec. 1. The Harbours Act of 1878 stated that no part of the seashore could be granted to a person or persons. It thus precluded the granting of title to the Ninety Mile Beach, the Solicitor-General (Mr H. R. C. Wild, Q.C.) said in the Supreme Court at Auckland today. Mr Wild was making submissions on behalf of the Crown before Mr Justice Turner, who was hearing an application from the Maori Land Court as to whether it had jurisdiction over the Ninety Mile Beach foreshore. The application arose from a claim by Waata Hone Tepania and the Te AupouJi and Te Rarawa tribes to the Maori Land Court for an investigation of the title of the beach with a view to their obtaining such title. Mr G. Dragicevich, of Kaitaia, was making submissions on their behalf when the Court adjourned until tomorrow morning. “Bold Claim’’

To say that the claim was a bold one would not be an overstatement, Mr Wild said. Nor would it be disrespectful to the Maori applicants, who alleged that the beach was owned by the two tribes according to Maori customs and usages before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi iri 1840.

It was curious and even significant, however that, although the treaty was signed nearly 120 years ago and the Maori Land Court set up nearly 100 years ago, this was the first claim to any part of the foreshore on the coastline of New Zealand. The question of the Maori Land Court’s power of jurisdiction over foreshore was plainly one of first importance in determining rights of incalculable value, Mr Wild said. If it had such jurisdiction over Ninety Mile Beach it also had the right to entertain similar claims around the coastline of New Zealand. Mr Wild said that ■ the Harbours Act was still a law of the land. So, top, was the Maori Affairs Act of 1953, which showed that the Maori Land Court had no jurisdiction over foreshores. The Crown opposed the application on the ground that, under the Treaty of Waitangi, everything passed to the Crown. The treaty imposed no fetter on Par-

liament in the passing of legislation in respect of Maori land, and four statutes had been passed putting land outside the jurisdiction of the Maori Land Court.

Only the Crown could grant Maoris title to land when they had proved their right to such title under legislation which enabled them to do so. Legislation passed in the days of New Zealand’s colonial infancy was mindful of the Crown’s common right to the foreshores. Commissioners could not recommend the granting of title to any land within 100 ft of the foreshore. Maori Submissions Mr Dragicevich submitted that native title to land could not be restricted by an artificial line called high water mark. ■ He quoted the case of the Wanganui river bed, which had been jealously guarded by the Maoris as a source of food.

The Maori Land Court had already decided that Ninety Mile Beach was customary Maori land. There was no enactment or authority to show that under the Maori Affairs Act of 1953 Maori land was restricted to high water mark. Such a restriction applied only to the Crown Grants Act.

The Harbours Act, Mr Dragicevich contended, restricted the granting of parts of the foreshore to harbour boards or individuals, but did not interfere with the ownership of the foreshore.