THE HOROWHENUA BLOCH.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1361, 21 May 1895, Page 5

THE HOROWHENUA BLOCH.

Wellington, May 17. In the ease of Warena Hunia v. Meiha Kupa and others (the Horowhenua block case) the judgment of the Court of Appeal was delivered by Mr Justice Denniston. The court concurred without hesitation or doubt in the finding of the Chief Justice that the land was intended ny the Native Laud Court and by the partus to be held on trust. A court of equity would not allow the Statute of Frauds to be made use of to defraud and deceive persons of property they previously possessed. The evidence showed an arrangement to have been come to that Kemp and Hunia should be sole owners on the understanding that they should held for the whole tribe, according to Maori custom. Such trust was too vague and indefinite to be enforced by the court in the event of disagreement between the parties, and the trust originally intended must be taken to have failed. The consequence of this, however, was not that Hunia could claim the property for himself, but that there was a resulting trust in favor of those who would have been entitled had the order of the Native Land Court not been made. The court thereupon arrived at the same decision as the Chief Justice by a different process of reasoning, and the order of the court would be that there should be a reference to the Native Land Court to ascertain what Natives would, apart from any voluntary arrangement, have been entitled to the land now vested in Hunia. The question of accounts need not be dealt with in the present decree. The appeal was dismissed, with costs on the highest scale. Leave was granted to appeal to the Privy Council.— -Daily Times.