WILLS UPSET.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 62, 10 September 1910, Page 3

WILLS UPSET.

MAORIS SERIOUSLY AFFECTED. AN EXTRAORDINARY POSITION. [BY IELEGBAPH — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. There is a great deal of feeling amongst the Kaiapoi Maorifs in regaid to the somewhat extraordinary position which has arisen owing to tue Supremo Court decision that has rendered invalid between, seventy and eighty wills mado during the past torty-hve "years. Theposition, is explained by Mr. Taituha. Hape, a leading Alaori of the district, who -was in Christchuch yesterday and who speaks feelingly because lie is one of the unfortunate sufferers. He s>avs that the Kaiapoi Maoris had no suspicion whatever until quite- recently that it was necessary to obtain the Governor's consent to wills made by Maori testators in favour ot .Maori beneficiaries and they had no reason to believe that there was anything invalid with the wills under which they inherited land. As a matter of fact, he says, it would be very strange if any of them had «ad an idea that the procedure followed was not quite regular, as they are not versed in the law and they naturally following the conservative instincts of their forefathers, look upon that which has been as that which should »c. They have been acting completely in good faith, and now to their consternation they find that land which was willed to them, which they have occupied for years, and -which they have improved at considerable expense, does not bolong to them, and that they have no more legal claim to either the land it. self or to the improvements on it than they <iave to Cathedral Square, or for that matter to the Tower of London. ' Mr. Taituha Hape's case apparently is a typical one. He inherited some of -'he Crown. grant land at Kaiapoi under a will. When the Native Land CouH was apportioning land by means of succession orders it took this fact into consideration and passed him over in ordw that land should be given to other Maoris who had inherited none. Ho erected two houses on the land at a cost of several hundred pounds. ,He is now in the position of having lost land, houses, and everything. His troubles do not end there. Taituha is also liable to be sued by the legal owners, but not, it is claimed, the rightful ones, for £700 or £800, for having illegally collected and disbursed their rents during the years he has occupied theproperty. As stated before, he was carefully left out of the succession orders because of his participation in the illomened wills, and he now stands up a ruined man — a landless Maori, and a target to be "shot at" by hosts of owners and part-owners whose numbers he cannot estimate. It is stated that many actions are being launched against Maoris who are in the same position as Mr. Taituha Hape. It is certain thai unless the Government validates theivills this session there will be much hardship and injustice, and thrifty and .well-to-do Maoris will be ruined. '