THE DAYS OF REBELLION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 972, 12 November 1910, Page 5

THE DAYS OF REBELLION.

AN INTERESTING CASE. . : v CEy Telegraph,—Special Corrapondent.) : 1 ' ■' Auckland, November 11. The Native Appellate Court now sitting at Botorua, presided over by Chief Judge : Palmer and Judge Rawson, has . delivered judgment in a. case of some' -historical interest. The' appeal wa6 ■ against a judgment of the Native Land Court on ah inquiry under Section 15 of fcho Native Land Court Act, 1894, dealing (rith a block of land near Tanranga, known as , lot 154,. Tepuna. Owing to the Maori rebellion in the sixties the' New Zealand Settlements Acts of 1863 and : JtSGG, and the Confiscated Land Act, 1867, .-Jjecame law. These Acts provided gen- ': aratt?; for the confiscation of the lands of jSrebels, and for an inquiry by a commission, to ascertain whether, lbyal Natives, . hz rebels who had returned to her Majesty's fold, were not entitled to a return suitable areas for their maintenance. ,crr compensation.' Such a commission sat : im IS6S and 1807, and found that, while ]the bulk of a tribe known ' as Ngati , ;Pirirakau were in rebellion, there were \fcolated cases of loyalty. The commission awarded areas to individuals, and in 'the caso under review a Crown grant was_ issued to two persons in trust ior the Pirirakau'tribe. "It was demon-, ftrated before the. Native Land Court . .ihafc all of the tribe, with the exception the grantees and two women married ifotwo Frenchmen, were in open hostility, -and rebellion against the Crown. . The (Court,; therefore, held .that the persons (solely entitled were the two grantees, the thro';women laving been provided for in Sitter .-awards by , then commission.-' Fromr ihis decision the tribe now appealed,-and :Mr.JHodge,, on their .behalf,, contended, £h«t,'./even if they were in rebellion; the 1 'Crown grant-was in trust for'the tribe, And; the Court oould not go behind the 1 grant. Mr.'Fraser .held that as the Acts ' finder which the grant was issued provided .only for loyal' Natives in 1866, the rebels could not participate in the trust. - The Appellate Court upheld. the' contention, and awarded the land to the two original grantees, with five acres each to the -two loyal women. The smallness of the latter award is explained by the orig- ' {sal award to them by the commission. ,