WEST COAST RESERVES

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 13 May 1912, Page 4

WEST COAST RESERVES

COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY; \ SATURDAY'S SITTING. : '

The Royal Commission of Enquiry into matters connected with the leases under the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act, 1881 resumed its sitting in Hawera on Saturday. The Courthouse was again crowded with Maori spectators. Mr Welsh, who had stated the eafee. for the lessees at the opening of the Commission, proceeded to call evidence Ohaties Andrews, farmer, residing at Okato, was the first witness. He deposed that he was a lessee under the Act of 1881, and owned section 2, block 2 Okato. He had secured 127 acres at 5s per acre. He made enquiries as tothe terms upon which the land was t» be offered, and informed the then reserves agent, Mr Reynolds, that he would take the land. At the time he considered the amount to be paid wastoo much, but Mr Reynolds said he could not reduce the price without submitting it to public tender again. However he agreed to take the selection, and went inte possession some two or three months before receiving his lease. When he received the lease he looked through it and was not satisfied with it, because it was not what it had been represented to him when he first made enquiries. He could nob say how the lease was worded, but lie knew there was nothing in it about being paid for all improvements. He had spent some £200 or £300 on the place, and, therefore, did not think it would be wise to leave theselection, as he would have got nothing for what he had spent on it. When he took possession the iand was open land with fern. He lived on the land, and as soon as he took possession he commenced to clear the land, and to improve it by the erection of a house and smalt buildings. He had not been able always to pay the rent when he first went on to the land. There was some reduction made to him by the Department. Times ■were then bad, and the land was not paying expenses, and he had to go out road-making, and bush-felling in order to keep the land. Several times he had to borrow money to meet the rents. ThePublic Trustee and his officers were very good to the lessees, for they did not push them. The lessees got up. a petition asking the Government to give re. lief, and as a result the lessees were given a reduction for a certain time— he thought it was for a year. In his own case he could not remember exactly what his rent was reduced by. Later, about the beginning of 1893, he became aware that he could convert his leasefrorn the tenure under the 1881 Act to the tenure under the 1892 Act. He then made enquiries of his solicitor, and Mr Fisher, the Reserves Agent, and as a result he considered it would be of no advantage to convert his lease, and for another reason it would have cost him too much money to do so, and he was then not in a position to convert his' lease. Lately he had discovered a good deal about these leases, and had been enlightened upon matters which he was not clear on when he -first took up his selection. He understood at first that he was going to be* paid for all improvements, and afterwards he learned something about £5 per acre that had to be paid to the Maori owner for the value of the improvements. Mr Welsh: What was the value of your improvements in 1892? Were they over £5 per acre Witness:-No'; I don't think they were. He added that if he had decided to convert the lease, he did not know what value the valuer would have placed on the improvements.

The Chairman: You don't know what value the seller is going to put on. (Laughter.)

Witness: After 1892 things got bet- ' ter with me. Some two or three years afterwards they began to improve a great deal. He had since spent a lot of money in improving the Jand, particu-"^ larly between 1892 and 1900, and would V then estimate the value from £8 to £9 *'&. per acre.

Mr Welsh: After 1893 did you become aware of the rights of conversion. Witness: No. I did not trouble to make any enquiries.

Mr Welsh: Did you receive any notice from, anyone? Witness: No. Mr Welsh: You know of a difference in tenure now if you did not then? .Witness: Yes. He added that if he had .known of the rights of conversion, he would have come under the Act of 1892. He knew in 1900 of the difference in the tenures. Since 1900 he had further improved his land. In the year 1901 he built a butter-factory costing £300, a cowshed costing £130, two rooms to the house, costing £75. There was now no fern or gorse on the land. He farmed the land, but principally did dairy farming. The total value of improvements at the present time was from £8 to £9 per acre. He asked still to come under the Act of 1892. He gave evidence before the Lands Committee of the House, and saw the meorandum of the suggested legislation, and considered it was fair to both parties. By Mr Bell: Hjad not any previous experience of farming when he took up the lease, and it was possible he may have misunderstood the information given him, although he did not think so. ' When he discovered that hi* -> lease was not what it was represented to be, he did not make any complaint" to the reserves agent, because he did not think it was any use doing so, as h<» would have to go out, leaving behind ' all his^improvements. Replying to the Chairman, witness said he was unable to explain why he! did not enquire of the Reserves Agent about his lease when he discovered that it was not what it was represented to him.

By Mr Bell: He had never received a registered letter from the Public Trustee as far as he could remember notifying? the rights of conversion under the 1892 Act.

Mr Bell said that the Public Trustee had forwarded notices of the right of conversion under this Act to the lessees.

Mr Kerr: What was your reason for not converting when you had the opportunity of doing so? t He replied that the first reason was. that he had to put a certain amount of money down, and he could not get it then. Secondly, he. stood the risk if having his rent raised, and he did not know what the fresh valuation on the land would be.

Mr Kerr: Could you not have got at* estimated value before surrendering the o ld lease

Witness: But not frond- the parties or the Public Trustee.

Replying to Mr Welsh, witness said be could not say if there were any holdirffs in his district held under the occupation licenses and sub-let to Europeans, a] though he held one for seven years. The Chairman intimated that he did not purpose hearing further evidence that day. He announced that the Commission would sit at Orjunake on Wednesday and Thursday, the 15th and 16th inst., arid at New Plymouth on the Satugdav. Monday, and Tuesday following. The Commission would then return- to Hawera, when the Maori evidence would be taken.

The Commission then adjourned until 10.30 o'clock on Monday morning. N

The latest scientific remedy for Coughs. Influenza, Golds, 'Bronchitis, Nasal Catarrh, Cold in the Head or Sore Throats, is "NAZOL." Its virtue: is that it cures. In bottlesj price Is 6d*