TE KUITI'S TURN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 1639, 21 February 1922, Page 4

TE KUITI'S TURN.

Taumarunui has at last received its valuations. It has kept up a steady

pressure on the department ever since it first resolved that security of

tenure was essential to its progress,

and now that it knows the worst,

or the best, it is to be hoped that

everybody will be satisfied with the

valuations —which is very unlikely.

With Taumarunui out of the way, the

Valuation Department will now be

free to turn its attention to Te Kiuti. The Town Tenure Committee, headed by Mr A. F. Howarth, has had all the

titles searched and many discrepan-

cies removed, so that nothing should

obstruct the work of the department.

This was no easy task, as over 400

titles had to be searched and anno-

tated before the work was com-

pleted, and Mr Howarth and his'

fellow committeemen have well earned

the thanks of the lessees for their

unobtrusive performance of a very

essential work.

It will be a good day for Te Kuiti

when outsiders can no longer find

excuse for venting their prejudices

against the nature of its tenure.

The prejudice against native titles

may be, and often is, quite unreasonable, but it arises mainly from an instinct, inherent in the average Britisher, for the greater security of freehold tenure. So far as Te Kuiti is concerned, the change of title will probably effect ■ nothing magical. in the progress of the town, for that depends on the prosperity of the surrounding districts. The chief immediate gain, if all goes well, will be largely a moral one, and in this respect the change, by removing long-standing and hitherto ineradicable prejudices, must be beneficial in its effects.