‘Shady deal’ claim at Waitangi Tribunal

Press, 8 December 1987, Page 22

‘Shady deal’ claim at Waitangi Tribunal

The Greymouth Borough Council acted fraudulently in taking Maori Reserve Land under the Public Works Act to be leased to the Greymouth Trotting Club, the Waitangi Tribunal was told. Mr James McAloon said the council had used a shady deal to squeeze land from the Maori owners, under the act, for its own profit. In 1886 a Greymouth lawyer, H. W. Kitchingham, unsuccessfully applied to the native trustee to lease a reserve of 8 acres known as Maori Paddock. The land was being leased to a W. S. Coates, providing that the owners could use the land for grazing. Part of Greymouth was designated for parks, and in 1892 the Victoria Park Company, which appeared to have been set up by Mr Kitchingham, tried to get

the land for a recreation ground. In 1895 the company bought the lease from Mr Coates in spite of an objection from a member of the Native Land Board. In 1899 the company applied to have the leases consolidated, but the trustee refused. The company was re-formed as the Greymouth Trotting Club, with Mr Kitchingham retaining his interest as the club’s solicitor.

In 1908 the Greymouth Borough Council decided, without the knowledge of the trustee, to acquire parts of the land under the Public Works Act, 1908, and sell these to the club. The acquisition was gazetted in October, 1908, and compensation paid, but no title was prepared, Mr McAloon said. “Interestingly, the relevant file had no material

between 1901 and February 1915, which is in itself suspicious.” In April, 1915, the Deputy Public Trustee suggested that a bill be promoted in Parliament to give the club freehold of the western part of the reserve held. “The draft bill also empowered the district land registrar to issue title for the lands acquired by the Borough Council — thereby sanctioning a shady deal,” he said. The Maori owners objected strongly to the proposal and, after some negotiations, the bill was withdrawn, with an undertaking to offer the lands in question for lease by auction. "However, the Borough Council kept most of the land taken under the Public Works Act. This act of fraud was not overturned.”