A NATIVE LANDS COURT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3935, 26 June 1877, Page 2

A NATIVE LANDS COURT.

The following description of a Native Lands Court, recently held at Pakirikiri, is furnished to the P.JB. Kerald by a correspondent : — Travelling on business to the Murewai the other day I was greeted by several natives as I passed Pakirikiri with the query, " Are you going to the Council 1" On further enquiry I found that the Council in question had been assembled for the purpose of investigating the claim of one Ropata Whakapuhia (a well-known native land-shark) to a parcel of land in Te Arai valley which he had caused to be surveyed with the intention of submitting it to the adjudication of the properly constituted Lands Court. The Murewai natives, however, had entered a protest against Ropata's proceedings in the way of pulling up the survey pegs ; Ropata sued them in the R.M. Court for damages and obtained judgment against them. f. The decision of the Resident Magistrate"^ was considered by the defendants to be most unjust, hence the court of enquiry. The business had commenced when I arrived at the Murewai. The Clerk of the Court was the only official seated at a table, everyone else was squatting on the ground. Said clerk was busily engaged in taking notes ; he likewise sported a " sub-clerk " who with pen behind his ear and fingers black as ink was sorting the records of the Court, and carefully pinning them together. There was a jury too, seated at the left of the table and a plan lying on a smaller table in front in readiness to be referred to. The examination of the witnesses was conducted by a foxy looking Maori, who, I learnt, was a professional investigator of titles, and solicitor from Nuhaka. He was well up to his work, and cross-examined the witnesses very severely, after which they were handed over to the tender mercies of the foreman of the jury for further questioning. This shining light generally reiterated the questions previously asked, by the learned counsel, contradicted each statement as it was made, and wound up by making a long statement on behalf of the other side. I hinted to an intelligent chief standing near me that the worthy foreman just appeared a shade prejudicelF —as if, in fact, he had been " tippedjL. He agreed with me, and communiciwa my views to some of his friends, and me result was that a protest was talked of as well as an application for a new jury. I walked off, for my interference was evidently not relished, and a hint was let fall that a policeman (regularly appointed, I was told, with p?iy of 10s per diem, rations' found), might receive orders to remove me. I noticed that the majority of the jurymen were natives who had been victims to distress warrants, judgment summonses, and other disagreeable processes of our R.M. Court. Thay are the actual founders of this Council, which professes to deal, not only with land questions, but all other matters — both civil and criminal. I had not proceeded far on my journeyv^homeward when I was joined by an abori- J ginal of no small rank who had been attending the case for the plaintiff, and who had been making the refreshment room his head-quarters, but as the waipiro had all run out he found matters getting tedious and left. He said he had come to the conclusion that the whole tiling was a farce, and asked my opinion of the new Government they were forming in Gisborne, meaning the Municipal Corporation, for he said he had heard that the newspapers were full of panuitangas from all the pakehas, and wanted to know if they required any Maori candidates ; if so, he would be most happy to go in. His conversation then became so unbearably loyal that I was compelled to say Kurupae.