Merger Of Land Titles Approved

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 16

Merger Of Land Titles Approved

(New Zealand Press Association) ROTORUA August 19. Judge K. Gillanders Scott gave a decision in the Waiariki Maori I.and Court, Rotorua, this afternoon paving the way for planting of a 60,000-acre exotic forest in the Tarawera Valley, near Kawerau.

He agreed to an application by the registrar of the Court for the amalgamation of 40 titles of Maori-owned land amounting to 38,000 acres into one title—Tarawera 1 — to be vested in the Maori Trustee. The proposal under the amalgamation of the titles is to sell the land to a new company known as Tarawera Forests. Ltd. The new company would consist of the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company, Ltd., the Maori land-owners, and the Crown. Judge Gillanders Scott said he would give a written statement on the reasons for his decision at a later date. The judge has protected, in his decision, the milling royalties at present being re-

ceived for indigenous timber standing in various areas of the Maori-owned block, providing the timber is felled and extracted within five years of the formation of the new company. The hearing covered four days—three in Whakatane and the fourth in Rotorua.