SALE OF FISHING RIGHTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20072, 9 October 1928, Page 13

SALE OF FISHING RIGHTS.

LAKE TAUPO AGREEMENT. MAORI LANDOWNER'S CLAIM. [BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Monday. The Full Court to-day vrns engaged in hearing an originating summons brought by Houni Te Heuhcu against the Crown. Mr. E. H. Northcroft appeared for <he plaintiff and Mr. A. Fair, the SolictorGeneral, for the defendant. The general facts which led to tho issuo of tho summons are that in 1926 an agreement was entered into between the Prime Minister, acting on behalf of the Government, and the Ngati Tuwharetoa tribe, which dwells around tho borders of Lake Taupo, that the bed of Lake Taupo and the rivers flowing into the lake, should be vested in tho Crown, and certain compensation paid to tho tribe. This was in effect a surrender of the communal fishing rights previously held by the tribe. The plaintiff, who is one of the private owners having land bordering on the Tongariro River, which flows into tho lake, alleges that he has suffered damage -by the taking of tho river by Order-in-Coun-cil in pursuance of tho agreement, and seeks to ascertain whether compensation can be claimed by him under tho Native Land Amendment and Native Land Claims Adjustment Act, 1926, for dam-' age alleged to have been suffered by him. Another point of interest raised in the summons is whether, in view of the provisions of the Fisheries Act, 1908, tho natives could validly enter into a sale of these fishing rights to tho Crown. The hearing was not concluded.