MAORI PETITION : ANCIENT CLAIMS ON MANGAHAUINI

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22729, 30 August 1948, Page 6

MAORI PETITION : ANCIENT CLAIMS ON MANGAHAUINI

Basing their claims on ancestral rights deriving from Barnet Burns, the “white chief” who lived on the East Coast for several years from 1829 onwards and who»*married a chieftainess of the Tokomaru Bay tribe, a small group of Coast natives is sponsoring a petition to Parliament for the re-open-ing of the original Mangahauini block case.

It is hoped that the petition, which is in course of preparation by Mr. Sydney Crawford, Hastings, will be presented at an early date, and that the decision of Parliament will be made known in the form of a direction to the Maori Land Court to take the case under review.

The Mangahauini block has been incorporated for many years, and has been operated by a committee of Maori owners on behalf of those to whom shares were allotted by the Maori Land Court after lengthy hearings. The present petitioners claim that the decision of the court was not in accordance with the principles of Maori succession. The block is a large one, and the beneficiaries under the Maori Land Court are numerous. Interest in the petition will be acute in the Tokomaru Bay area, since a decision by Parliament to refer the matter once again to the Maori Land Court would involve a substantial outlay in assembling records and other evidence long since buried in the archives of the Maori Department.