Reform Of Maori Land Law

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31360, 4 May 1967, Page 1

Reform Of Maori Land Law

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 3. The boldest bid yet to check multiplying problems of Maori land ownership, succession, fragmented titles, and uneconomic interests is now before Parliament.

A massive Maori Affairs Amendment Bill of eight parts and 147 sections, introduced in the House of Representatives today, will, if passed, “Europeanise” some 1.4 million acres or more than a third of the 3.9 million acres of Maori holdings which remain. The bill, which will not take effect until April 1 next year, is largely based on recommendations of the 1965 Prichard report on Maori land law. Main Features Major provisions of the measure include: All Maori land owned by no more than four persons will become European land, subject only to the general law. This covers a fifth of Maori lands. European succession systems will apply, giving Maori widows an interest on intestacy, and the land will be available for the payment of debt, against which it is at present protected. Where practical obstacles to the change in status exist, procedures are provided to rectify them. If defects in survey, access, and the size and shape of blocks restrict effective use, the Department of Maori Affairs will be able to invoke new general powers to promote more effective and profitable use and more efficient administration of land. Right Of Shares Maori forestry and farming incorporations, now controllling a fifth of Maori lands, gain a complete statutory code, aligning them with limited liability companies; their land, too, becomes European.

The owners’ interest will become a shareholding in the incorporation—not, as now, shares in the land. The incorporation itself, as is the case with co-operative dairy companies, will have first

right to shares for sale. If 11 does not buy in three months the shares may be sold to anj person. At present, onlj Maoris may buy such shares Maori land interests will be rated “uneconomic” at up tc £5O, twice the present figure, and thus subject to compul sory cash buying by the Crown through the Maori Trustee. To revitalise the 13-year-old programme of such acquisitions, or “conversions,” Parliament will appropriate funds yearly because Maori Trustee profits now used have proved inadequate on the scale needed. First Offer Uneconomic interests compulsorily purchased must be offered first to Maoris or devoted to Maori purposes, but where not sold to Maoris within three years may be sold to the Crown for general purposes. Little more than half of all Maori titles, or some 17,000 blocks are surveyed: conversion funds may also be used for surveys, with expenses taking effect as a mortgage on land involved. Amounts of less than 2s an individual share from land interests will not be distributed by the Maori Trustee but will be given to the Macri Education Foundation. The Trustee will also not be obliged to pay out, even on succession, compulsorilyacquired interests worth less than ss. Present law on estates of Maoris and succession to Maori land is completely revised. Where no will has been made, Maori widows—or widowers—now receive nothing as of right. Estates of Maoris dying intestate after March 31, 1968, will pass to an administrator, as with Europeans, and spouses will have the same rights as their European counterparts. Death Duties The administrator will have powers of sale of Maori land. Maori land interests will be liable for debts and subject to ordinary death duty—not, as now, the special Maori succession duty of 2 per cent of the value of each interest exceeding £lOOO. Incorporation shares will also attract normal death duties. Law relating to Maoris* wills will be the same as for Europeans: restrictions on willing Maori land interests will disappear.

t Jurisdiction to grant pro- , bate under the Family Pror tection Act, 1955, will be for r the Supreme Court, not the . Maori Land Court. : For those dying before < • April 1, present law and Maori , custom will prevail and the | ■ separate scale of duty will i ! apply—but only for five years. 1 I From April 1, 1973, any un- I ‘ succeeded interests in Maori j ' land will automatically vest I ■ in the Maori Trustee for the < ■ benefit of those entitled to ! them. ] The Trustee may alienate 1 such land but not by selling ' an interest of more than £lOO • if persons entitled to a ma- 1

jority interest in it ask him not to do so. Government valuations will be the basis on which land interests are acquired by the conversion fund. The Maori Trustee will have parallel powers and privileges in administering estates of Maoris as the Public Trustee has for Europeans. He may pay beneficiaries up to £2OO from trust funds without a court order. The new measure loosens legal inhibitions on alienation of Maori land. The general 50-year-limit on Maori land leases will be dropped.