Shortcomings In Maori Land Laws

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30858, 17 September 1965, Page 10

Shortcomings In Maori Land Laws

(New Zealand Press Association)

NELSON, Sept. 16.

One hundred years of the Maori Land Court had produced three great evils, a former Chief Judge, Mr I. Prichard, of Rotorua, said in Nelson today. Mr Prichard is chairman of the Committee of Inquiry 7 into Maori Lands, which is nearing the end of a New Zealand-wide investigation.

Mr Prichard said the legislation had produced too many Maori owners and blocks of land that were of a shape or size which made it difficult to get anyone to farm them. It also had not made the advances which Maoris considered it should have.

“What was good enough a century ago is not good enough today.” he said. With Mr Prichard c the committee is Mr H. T. Waetford, of Whangarei, the special titles officer of the Maori Affairs Department

The recommendations of the committee, which has had about 40 meetings in the North Island, will be submitted to the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Hanan). The committee met last night in Nelson under the chairmanship of the district officer and registrar of the Maori Land Court, Mr J. E. Lewin, of Christchurch. Tonight the committee will meet in Picton. Later it will meet in Christchurch, Horowhenua and Invercargill. Mr Prichard said a certain pattern of agreement was emerging. One was the situation which arose when a Maori wife or husband died intestate. At the present the widow or widower had no

rights to the other partner’s property. “That is a relic of the old days and it is generally felt it should go,” he said. They should have the same rights as Europeans. Many considered that if Maori owners wanted to sell perpetual leasehold Maori land they should have the right to do so. The great movement among Maoris in the last decade, particularly in the North Island, was to the urban areas, where every endeavour was made to find jobs for them, and where houses were always made available. The move was not as noticeable in the South Island, where the bulk of Maoris already lived in the towns and cities. Many of those who had moved wanted the money out of their land to assist them in their new situation.