MAORI LAND CLAIM

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 42, 13 November 1937, Page 10

MAORI LAND CLAIM

Three Members Of Tribe To

Meet Government

A 99-YEAR-OLD GRIEVANCE The Government hits agreed to receive three members of the Ngaitahu tribe from the South Island to discuss the claim which the tribe has been pressing for many years for compensation arising from the sale of Native land and reserves. An announcement to this effect was made yesterday by Mr. E. T. Tirikatene, M.P. for Southern Maori, who said that the negotiations would take place with the Government at the end of the present session of Parliament.

Mr. Tirikatene explained that the Ngaitahu claim involved 12} million acres of land and affected many descendants of the tribe in the South Island, particularly many living in Canterbury and Southland. A Royal Commission had investigated the claim in 1920, and, basing their assessment ou a standard of }d. an acre, had recommended making £354,000 as a payment. In 1935, Mr. Tirikatene said, the then Government made an offer of £lOO.OOO as a final settlement of the claim. That offer had not been accepted by the members of the Ngaitahu Trust Board, nor by Mr. Tirikatene himself, as one of the negotiators.

“This grievance has received very little consideration (luring the last 99 years,” Mr. Tirikatene added. “It is a genuine claim and time alone cannot wipe it out. The present Government must be complimented for the consideration granted my people in deciding to meet our three representatives after the conclusion of the present session of Parliament.”