Title To Riverbed Decided

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29765, 7 March 1962, Page 15

Title To Riverbed Decided

(New Zealand Press Association,

WELLINGTON, March 6. The Court of Appeal, in a reserved judgment, has brought to an end, so far as the New Zealand courts are concerned, a long story of litigation between the Maoris of the Wanganui tribe and the Crown relating to the ownership of the bed of the Wanganui river. Over the years the case has attracted considerable attention and the outcome of the latest proceedings has revived interest among officials and members of the legal profession as well as the public in this history of the case.

The substance of the Maoris’ claim was that, up to the time of the passing of legislation which vested the ownership of the beds of all navigable rivers in the Crown, the Wanganui riverbed belonged to the Wanganui tribe.

The sustaining of this contention would have enabled the Maoris to claim compensation from the Crown arising out of the confiscatory legislation. The Court of Appeal’s judgment, however, upholds the Crown contention that at the time the legislation was passed ownership of the riverbed up to the middleline had already passed with

the grants of title that had been made for the land on the banks. The Solicitor-General (Mr H. R. C. Wild, Q.C.) and Mr E. J. Haughey appeared for the Crown, and Mr F. C. Spratt (now Mr Justice Spratt) and Mr G. P. Barton represented the Maori claimants. Begun In 1938 The litigation was begun in 1938 when the Maoris applied to the Maori Land Court to investigate the title to the bed of the river. Judge Browne held, as a preliminary point, that the bed of the river was owned by the Maoris under their customs at the time of the Treaty of Waitangi, and this decision was upheld in 1944 by the Maori Appellate Court.

Four years later the Supreme Court, on the Crown’s application, made an order prohibiting these courts from proceeding with the investigation of title, on the ground that the riverbed had become vested in the Crown by legislation passed in 1903. The Maoris claim that this legislation confiscating their rights to the riverbed was referred to a royal commission which reported that, but for the legislation of 1903, the riverbed would still have belonged to the Maoris.

Special legislation was then passed in 1951 referring the whole matter to the Court of Appeal. After a hearing in 1953 that Court rejected the Crown's contention that the riverbed became the property of the Crown on the acquisition of British sovereignty in 1840.

The Court deferred a second contention by the Crown relating to the effect on the riverbed of grants of title to land on the banks, and referred to the Maori Appellate Court questions as to the rights by Maori custom to ownership of the riverbed. The Maori Appellate Court heard evidence and argument on these questions at Wanganui in 1958, and the Court’s opinions were then referred to the Court of Appeal. Final argument in that court took place in August, 1960, and the Court’s judgment now delivered is to the effect that the grants of title to the land on the banks of the river, all of which were made before the legislation of 1903, carried title to the middle-line of the river.

Separate judgments to this effect were delivered by Mr Justice K. M. Gresson, Mr Justice Cleary and Mr Justice Turner.