THE WEST COAST SETTLEMENT RESERVES ACT.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 66, 16 September 1881, Page 2

THE WEST COAST SETTLEMENT RESERVES ACT.

<? This Act, which has been introduced by the Attorney-General in the Upper House, has operation only in the confiscated territory on the West Coast of the North Island. It provides for the appointment of a trustee, who shall be resident in the district, to carrying into effect the provisions of the Act. Alienable reserves are not to be alienated except through the trustee, who is to satisfy himself that the terms of any such alienation are fair and proper, and in respect of leases that the proposed lease is in all respects in conformity with the provisions of the Act. He ia to receive the rents, and after making any deductions authorised by law, pay over the residue to the native owners. Leases must be disposed of by public tender or by public auction, and for the best improved rent obtainable. The expenses of administering the Act are to be defrayed out of moneys appropriated by the General Assembly for that purpose, bnt in aid of such payment the Governor in Council may prescribe that a certain percentage of the rents, &c, shall be deducted by the trustee and paid into the Public Account. Over and above thia percentage, the trustee shall require the owners ot any reserve to appropriate a certain portion of the rents for the maintenance of native schools in the neighbourhood. The proportion to be so appropriated is to te at the discretion of the owners When any Commissioner, appointed under the Act, shall find that the sale of intoxicating liquors to natives by any publican is interfering with the business of the Commission, he may order the Bale to natives to be stopped so long a3 he considers it to be obstructive to the business of the Commission. Any person disobeying such order may be summoned before the Commission and fined in any sum not less than .£lO or more than jGSO, the conviction to be endorsed on the license.