NATIVE LANDS

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 8

NATIVE LANDS

IMPORTANT INQUIRIES PENDING WIDE AREAS AFFECTED CROWN AND NATIVES ADJUSTING ACCOUNTS Important investigations into the ownership of lands are pending, which should keep the Native Land Courts busy for months to come, some of the matters for inquiry will relate to sales effected almost a century ago, and to areas confiscated by the Grown after the Hau Hau rebellion.

The first enquiry, which will be commenced by Judge Gilfedder at Waipawa next week, concerns the Aorangi block of 7200 acres. This, it is claimed by the flf fives, was wrongfully included by ti” Crown in two old sales made about 1850 and 1860. one being the Waipukurau sale and the other the Porangahau sale. Under the two deeds the boundaries were fixed as two streams, but when the land was surveyed a line was taken between the two rivers. This land was subsequently sold by the Crown to the late Mr. Sydney Johnston in 1865. and is now held by his son, Mr. Walter Johnston. The latter’s homestead stands right in the centre of the disputed area, and it was here that His Excellency the Gov-ernor-General and Lady Jellicoe were recently in residence. The Crown has not yet agreed to pay compensation, but the Government authorised the Native Land Court by statute last year to go into the question of ownership of this land, the idea being to enable the Crown to have a set body of people to deal with in the event of compensation having to be paid. The investigation will be a. particularly interesting one by reason of the fact that' file claimants for inclusion will extend from as far north as Poverty Bay right down into the Wairarapa and Manawatu. and possibly into tho South Island. The history of the locality will have to be traced for possibly fifteen generation® back.

Echo of Hau Hau Rebellion, A similar investigation is pending in respect to a vast tract of territory in the Poverty Bay district. The history of this dispute dates back to the times of the Hau Hau rebellion. As a punishment for the trouble caused by the Hau Haus, the Government of the day proposed to punish the rebels by confiscating any lands they held. Very little land had at that time gone through the Courts, and it was difficult to ascertain who were rebels and who were not, particularly as many of the rebels had relatives who remained loyal to the Crown right throughout the war. The chiefs of the Poverty Bay district, in order to get over the difficulty, ceded an area of about a million acres, extending from Tolaga Bay inland to the range, along the'range to Teneroto, and back along the coast to Gisborne.

Then the Crown appointed commissioners, with instructions that wherever land was found within this territory to belong to loyalists if was to bo returned to the owners. Major Biggs, the then military resident officer of the district, wae asked to make inquiries as to the best course to take in order to define ownership, but that officer reported that it was impossible to separate the loyalist from the rebel lands. Meanwhile Te Kooti escaped from the Chatham Islands and threw everything into confusion in the Poverty Bay district by harrying the country with fire and tomahawk. The loyal Natives became alarmed, and made qvertures to the Government for military protection. The Government suggested that the loyal Natives should make a grant of land in which some of the militia from Hawke’s Bay could settle. The Natives agreed to set aside 15,000 acres, 5000 for the militia. 5000 for European occupation, and 5000 for Native soldiers. This area was later increased to 20,000 acres, but when the Crown came to survey it, from 50,000 to 60.000 acres, the Natives allege, were taken from them. As a result, the Natives have petitioned Parliament since 1873 for a return of 30,000 or 40,000 acres. Commissioners were appointed some time ago to go into the whole matter, and they reported that the Natives had a just claim. Last year Parliament passed legislation authorising the Native Land Court to define ownership of the land hi dispute, in order that everything should be in train in the event of compensation having to be paid. Obviously the Native Land Court will have its hands full for a long time to come with the business of determining the rightful ownership of such big tracts of territory.