FORESHORE TITLE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 10

FORESHORE TITLE

Court Reserves Decision (New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 2. Thtie was not a square inch at foreshore in New Zealand for which some certificate of title might not be contested. If the application before the Court were successful it might mean that claims to ownership might be made for any beach in the country, said Mr Justice Turner in the Supreme Court at Auckland today. His Honour reserved his decision after hearing legal submissions in respect of an application from the. Maori Land Court to determine whether it had jurisdiction over the Ninety Mile Beach foreshore.

The hearing took a day and a half. The Solicitor-General (Mr H. R. C. Wild, Q.C.) and Mr Rosen represented the Crown. Mr G. Dragicevich, of Kaitaia, represented the Maori applicants. Mr Dagicevich submitted that the proclamation by the Governor, Sir George Bowen, in 1872, that only the Crown could grant title to land in New Zealand was a valid proclamation. Authorities showed that customary titles of Maoris must be extinguished by process of law, and the Harbours Act did not extinguish customary title.

"Mr Wild contended that whether the land was European or Maori the title could only be given by Crown grant, and the provisions of the Harbours Act were clearly substantive in excluding the jurisdiction of the Maori Land Court. He submitted that the Harbours Act and the Crown Grants Aet took the foreshore outside the jurisdiction of the Maori Land Codrt. '