DRAKEI NATIVES INDIGNANT

Evening Star, Issue 22686, 28 June 1937, Page 3

DRAKEI NATIVES INDIGNANT

LAND PREMISED THEM [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, June 26. Orakei Natives are indignant at the decision of tho Minister of Lands (Mr Langstone) to shift tho Maoris from Orakei. They state that it is contrary to any official view previously expressed, and they still rely on the Prime Minister (Mr Savage), to see that justice is done. Nia Hira, chief at Orakei, to-day traced the development of the problem since 1908. He referred to the emphatic statements of Judge Acheson, of the Native Land Court, when a Court of Inquiry was held under the CoatesForbes Government, that land should he given to the Maoris at Orakei. He stated also that at a previous inquiry, when Judge Acheson and the Maoris’ counsel had sought the production in court of documents showing that the Maoris had been induced to sell the land at Orakei the Government representatives had refused and had left the court. The documents had never been produced. Just before Mr Savage left for England ho had promised that the matter would bo settled, hut three days after that Mr Langstone’s decision had come.