THE POUTUTU CASE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 394, 21 December 1889, Page 2

THE POUTUTU CASE.

HIS Honor Judge Barton yesterday morn ing delivered judgment, affecting a very important phase in connection with the Poututu Blocks. As our readers are already aware, the disputes in connection with these lands appeared to be of an almost interminable character. So great, indeed, were the difficulties in the way of arriving at a just settlement of the matters in controversy, between the various suitors—Europeans and Natives, and Europeans and Europeans—that,—after all parties had decided to leave the whole issue to the arbitrament of the Judge, —as a climax, a new and unexpected difficulty arose. An alteration in the law was found to be essential before any decision given by the Land Court could be binding on all parties. That alteration in the law was effected by the Poututu Jurisdiction Act, passed last session. As Sir Frederick Whitaker remarked when the Poututu Jurisdiction Bill was before the Legislative Council, there was no doubt that these disputes concerning titles to land in the Gisborne district were the most complicated that came up for investigation. In no part of the Colony were the disputes of a more difficult character to grapple with. In the Poututu case the tangled skein of difficulties was surpassingly hard to unravel. We do not pretend to do more than barely suggest what those difficulties were. And we do so for the purpose of pointing out that with an able and learned judge much can be surmounted. To do so, however, demands more than ordinary ability of a judicial character, besides untiring energy. Like many other Native districts in the North Island, a large area of the lands owned by Maoris in this part of the colony were proclaimed, some years ago (when the Government land purchase mania prevailed), under the Public Works Act, 1878, as being under negotiation by the Crown. The Poututu Blocks became included in that category. The law, from one point of view, seemed to declare, that once the Government announced in a formal way its intention of acquiring native territory in any particular district, all operations in the way of purchasing or leasing by private parties were Ultra vires. .Notwithstanding the fact that the Government had acquired as much as it desired of the land so proclaimed—the residue could not be negotiated for. In the Poututu case the Government, through its Land Purchase Officer, bought as much as it desired. With the balance Mr William Cooper dealt. To the ordinary mind it would seem that the Government having exercised to'its own satisfaction its prior rights of pre-emption and acquired as much as it thought fit of the Poututu blocks, would not have stood in the way of any enterprising pioneer who was prepared to further the settlement of the country. Well, we do not say that the Government of that day attempted to do so, but the wretched state of the law was such that grave doubts existed as to the legal position of persons who became purchasers of native lands that were subject to the proclamation. Judge Barton’s decision—the first we can now call to mind given on the subject-,-seems to be eminently practical and full of common sense. His Honor held that the true construction of the statute would not uphold the view, urged against Cooper’s case, that because the proclamation existed over the whole of the Poututu blocks, hence his purchases were invalid. His Honor maintained that Cooper's purchases might be opened to impeachment from the Crown itself The only object of the statute however was to secure to the Government the right of preemption. “Therefore,” as the learned judge observed, “ if any private person chose to buy from the native owners, taking the risk whether the Government would purchase over his head, he might, notwithstanding this statute, buy from them the interest left in them.” This is only the first of many of the complicated questions that had to be disposed of. tye cannot at present, in the limited space at our disposal, deal as fully as we should desiie With th.e many crotchetty points raised and dealt with in this long pending suit The restrictions and"counter restrictions placed upon the lands, and the inextricable confusion that matters had reached, will not readily be forgotten. The exhaustive judgment, given yesterday, apart from its Local importance, carries with it great weight. Jt tends to show that in competent judicial hands these Native land disputes that so retard the progress of the place can be settled once and for all, as has been shown in the present Poututu casp. The decision so far given, while bearing pppp many important questions affecting generally the blocks, relates to the disputes between Mr Wm. Cooper (for whom Mr Gannon appeared) and Mr Percival Barker (represented by Mr DeLautour). The judgment is unequivocally in favor of Mr Cooper, who is declared entitled to his purchat'-il ip the Poututu C block, a,id t l ;o the unpaid balance of the purchase money— over £5OO (exclusive of mterut)” of the Poututu A and if blocks.

THE i’- IMBLE SCANDAL. Here is wh the Lyttelton Times has to say on the work of that excellent retrenching Government of which Mr Arthur is so , oud in his praise :—“The Government’s administration does not improve in any way. It is neither efficient nor cleanhanded. Indeed, the recent appointment of Colonel Trimble to a Native Judgeship seems about as inexcusable a specimen of a political job as could be expected even from the Continuous Ministry. A good Native Lands Court Judge must have certain qualities. He must be a man of judicial mind, even temper, and unbounded patience, as well as scrupulously honorable. The last Colonel Trimble maybe : the rest he is not. Of all the fanatical, bigoted, bitter partisans we ever saw in the House of Representatives, he bore the palm for recklessness and onesidedness. To this he added a naturally hot temper. Altogether, he was personally about the last man to have been selected as a Judge, however useful an advocate he might have been. Then, apart from disposition, a Native Judge should be a master of the Maori tongue, and well acquainted with their customs, history, and national character. He ought also to have Native Land Laws and the long story of native land transactions at his fingers' ends. To have this knowledge he must be an old settler, and have mingled with and moved about amongst the Maori race for a series of years. Colonel Trimble is hot a very old settler, nor is he at all noted for his influence with natives, his tact in dealing with them (or any one else), or his knowledge of native habits, traditions, or literature. Nor is he a man who has rendered at any time great services to New Zealand. So far as we can remember his career in Parliament has left three memories. He was a red hot supporter of the present Premier ; he once said that the Treaty of Waitangi—the Maori Magna Charta—ought to be torn up ; and he had three sons in the Civil service. The first peculiarity explains why he has been made a Native Judge: the second and third afford excellent arguments against his appointment. A man who could attack the Treaty of Waitangi, the document upon which all the rights of the Maori are based, and upon the observance of which the very existence of the race depends, is on that account alone disqualified from holding the important post given to Colonel Trimble. And surely a man who has had employment found for three sons . at the expense of a grateful country has had about enough done for his family by 1 his political friends.”