Maori land more secure

Press, 14 June 1984, Page 17

Maori land more secure

Parliamentary reporter

The new Maori Affairs Bill before Parliament will make it even harder to alienate Maori land than it is now.

It is the intention of the legislation that Maori land should be retained by the family — either direct descendants or members of the hapu. This has long been the intention of Maori Affairs legislation, so that Maori land should not pass out of Maori hands, and has applied particularly to “undivided interest” in the land, which is an interest in a percentage of the whole of the land and not just an identifiable part of it.

A 1974 amendment to the Maori Affairs Act, 1967, extended this provision to nonMaori as well as Maori owners of an undivided in-

teresl. These provisions have been tightened in the bill, and there is no longer any distinction between Maori and non-Maori owners of an individed interest in Maori freehold land. Non-Maori owners, too, are prevented from selling the land to anyone other than descendants of immediate family, or to other owners of undivided interests in the land. The solicitor for the Maori Affairs Department, Mr W. Dewes, said it was not “illegal” for sales to be made outside this narrow group. “Illegal” was not the right term for it. “It is just that they are now able by law to do it outside the provisions of the bill,” he said.

This also means that Maori land may no longer be sold under the Lands and

Transfer legislation; it must be sold under the Maori Affairs Act.

Clause 82 (2) sets out five classes of persons to whom it is “preferred” that land should be alienated: Children and remoter issue of the alienating owner; persons who are related to the alienating owner and are members of the hapu associated with the land; other owners of the land who are members of the hapu associated with the land; trustees of persons defined in the first three classes; and descendants of any former owner who was a member of the hapu associated with the land.

Clause 83 applies the provisions for interest in land to shares in a Maori incorporation, while clause 85 says no person has the capacity to alienate any interest in Maori freehold

land otherwise than in accordance with this act. In this context, “alienation” means every form of disposition of the land or of any legal or equitable interest in the land, including any undivided interest. However, clause 86 retains the capacity of a sole owner of a block of Maori freehold land to alienate it, as have joint tenants of a block. Owners in common of a block may alienate it by agreement of all the owners or after a resolution carried at a meeting of assembled owners.

Where any Maori freehold land is to be alienated by transfer or lease, preference must be given to prospective purchasers or lessees set out in clause 82 (2), over those who do not qualify for one of those five classes.