NATIVE LAND COURT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 107, 29 January 1908, Page 8

NATIVE LAND COURT.

SCENIC RESERVE. AT PLIMMERTON. QUESTION OF COMPENSATION. At the'-sitting .of.'the Native Land Court on Monday afternoony Chief Judge Palmer preargujnent ■ was hearH. relativo to '.an' application' lodged by the Minister of Public Works under Section 91 of tho Public Works. Act with respect- to tho compensation .payable to' tho. Natives interested in a block of land at. Plimmorton taken under' the Sconic Preservation Act. - . Mr. ili 'D. Bell. who appeared for the Crown,'applied: to' withdraw ' tho' application- - on' tho. ground' that 'the Native Land Court had no jurisdiction. Counsel submitted that under Section 91. of the .PublicWorks Act tho prerogative'of right to. apply involved the prerogative. of riglit to withdraw'. The' statute had. not, lie continued, actually conferred any right to compensation', although it implied that right. . The land in question hac?'been- taken under, the-Public .Works Act. Where .land so taken.was'Nativo,land, compensation should,'it Was provided, be paid to tho Public Trustee, who should pay the-in-come therefrom to the persons entitled thereto. Tho land-in -question was transferred by tlio.flatc Wi Par.w, ~..c 'vested- in the-Public Trustco for an estate of inheritance in fco simple as a Native reserve. It was provided in the Public Works Act that all claims for compensation, except when express provision was miidei;otherwise, should be determined by a . Compensation Court to bo set up for that purposo. That Court- could not be the Native Land Court. The Public Trustee was t-ho owner-of tlio land in question, and 'there was no Native owner. Mr. C. H. Treadvell, who represented tho Public Trustee, contended' that'' the section under which the application had. hcen lodged, and; under which the application for leave to withdraw had been made, said nothing about tho Crown. Tho duty imposed on tho Ministor was, lie subriiitted, 1 coupled with the duty of conserving the interests of : the Native owners concerned. The suggestion that the Minister could allow the application to stand over indefinitely was preposterous. Counsel desired .to.call'the attention of the Court to tho_ correspondence which had passed on tho subject botween his firm and the Government Departments concerned, but Mr. Bell' objected, and the objection was upheld. Continuing, Mr. Troadwell. pointed out that the land in question was vested under the Native Lands Reserves Act .of 1886 in Wi Paratain trust for the members of tho Ngatitoa tribe. The amending Act of 1896 divested Wi Parata of this trust, and vested it in the Public Trustee in fee simple as a Native reserve. This Act' had since repealed the vesting in tho Public Trustee, and Wi Parata's old certificate was restored except as to tho section altered by the Act of 1896, and tho position of the land as Nativo land was restored. As the interests, of tho Natives still remained the Court was, ho contended, bound to proceed with the hearing of the application. Chief Judge Palmer will give his decision this morning.at 10 o'clock. OTHER APPLICATIONS. Judge Johnson presided over tho sittings held yesterday, and Mr. E. Nicholson acted as Native Assessor. Mr. J: J. M'Grath made application on behalf of six Natives at Now Plymouth for tho partition of Sub-section 7 of Section 19, Hutt, in which several Natives residing at Picton aro also interested. The Court awarded 13 acres 1 rood 1 polo to the applicants, and individualised the titles to the whole block, which contains 27 acres 1 rood 17 perches. ' Subsequently a- number of applications for succession and for appointment of trustees wero dealt with.

Among the' cases set down for hearing today is one in which Turama Molii Nopera claims to bo the successor to Wi Katcni l'aremata. in respect of portion of a property known as No. 2 D of Section 12 E Manawatu Kukutauaki. The land in dispute, which contains 15 acres, valued at about £30 per acre, is a portion of a block held in the seventies by the Wellington-Maimwatu Railway Company. Mr. Henare Otonore. will appear on behalf of the applicant, and Mr. Iverehi Koera for the objectors, Tewiata Arapere and Ropoama, Arapere,