NATIVE LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 964, 3 November 1910, Page 4

NATIVE LANDS.

NEW RATING BILL. The Rating Amendment Bill, introduced by the Hon. J. Carroll, provides that customary land shall be exempt from rating. Save so far as otherwise provided by this Act, Native freehold land shall bo liable to rating and subject to the provisions of the principal Act in the same manner as European land. Where Native freehold land is vested in a Maori Land Board or in the Public Trustee, it shall not bo liable for. any rates in excess of the revenues actually received during the period in respect of which those rates became due, and during a period of two years after tho date on which they became due, after deducting from those Tβvenues all outgoings and expenses. _ The Governor may exempt any Native land from all or any specified part of the rates, and any such order may apply either to any specified land on account of the indigent circumstances of the occupiers or for any.other special reason, or to any specified class of lands. No such exemption shall effect any rate theretofore made by any local authority. Any such exemption may be at any time varied or cancelled. If there is no occupier other than the owner, then the person who is in actnal occupation shall bo deemed to be the occupier, whether ho occupies the land by virtue of a tenancy for any fixed period or at will or otherwise, and whether his occupation is lawful or unlawful. ■ ■ J ' ■; Where Native land is owned in common, it shall bo sufficient to insert _in the owner's column of the valuation roll the names of any two or more of the owners in common as representing all of those owners, and where the owners in common are also the occupiers it shall be sufficient to insert in the occupier's column of the valuation roll the names of any two or more of those occupiers as representing all of those occupiers. . The owners in eommo_n of Native land shall not bo liable jointly for tho total rate payable in respect of that land, but each of them shall be liable for the same proportion of tho total rate as tho value of his interest bears to tho aggregate value of the interests of all the owners. Every judgment . so. obtained shall operate and bo enforceable as a separate judgment against each of the owners for his own proportion of the total rate. If and • so far as the: relative shares have not been ascertained, those shares. shall bo deemed to be equal. Where one of the owners in common 1 has paid to a local authority any sum in excess of the amount of his own liability; he shall be entitled to recover from any other owner the amount so. paid in-excess, .or such part as does not exceed tho sum for which such other owner is individually liable. All sums so' recoverable shall constitute an equitable' chargß"\ipotf4he land. Judgment for rates due in respeot of Native land may bo given against any owner or occupier of that land at any time within ■ /three ■ years from , the "time when the -rates. first became duo.': and when judgment had been obtained against tho owner or owners, and it has not been fully satisfied within one month, tho judgment may be registered against the land. Application may be made ex parte 1 or otherwiso, by or on behalf of tho local authority, to tho Native Land Court for the enforcement of the charge, and tho Court'may thereupon, on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit, either: (a) Appoint a Maori Land Board, or the Public Trustee, or any other person as a receiver of the rents and profits of the land which is subject to the charge, or of. any part of that land; or (b) niako a vesting order, vesting the said land, or any part thereof, in a Maori Land Board or in the Public Trustee on trust for sale. No appeal to the Native Appellate Court shall lie from any order so mado. When an-order is made vesting any land ..in a Maori Land Board or in the Public Trustee, the board orthe Public Trustee , shall hold the land in trust .to sell the same either by private eontract or by public auction or- tender, and either in one- lot or in subdivisions. Nothing -in the new Bill shall affect the operation of Sect-ion 108 of the principal Act which conserves tlio right of tho Minister to recover rates paid by him under ■ the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act and amendments. Tho sections in the principal Act dealing with the rating of Native land a-ro repealed.