THE NATIVE LAND SETTLEMENT BILL.

Evening Star, Issue 6919, 4 June 1885, Page 4

THE NATIVE LAND SETTLEMENT BILL.

WELLINGTON, June 3.

This Bill is now completed, and will be distributed shortly. It provides the means by which Native lands can be disposed of either by sale or lease under the land laws of the Colony after they have passed through the Native Land Court. Owners of a block of land will have the power to appoint from among themselves, if they are eight or more in number, a Committee consisting of seven persons, who will have the right to deal with the lands subject to certain powers of control on the part of the owners. If the number is seven or less, then the owners themselves will have the powers of the Committee. A Board will be constituted for certain defined districts, and will have power, upon the recommendation of the Committee, to take land and use it for settlement purposes in a way similar to the operation of the Waste Land Boards. The Commissioners of these Boards will have large powers entrusted to them, but always subject, on the one hand, to the recommendations of the Committee of owners, and on the other hand to the regulations of the frovernor-in-Council bringing into force the land laws under which the land will be administered. Expedition is now being used in putting lands through the Native Lands Courts, with a view to bringing them speedily under the operation of the Bill when passed.