ORAKEI DISPUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23072, 24 June 1938, Page 15

ORAKEI DISPUTE

OWNERSHIP OF LAND v ■ THE CROWN AND MAORIS COMMISSION SET UP i. . • JUDGE TO BE PRESIDENT A further effort to reach finality in the land dispute between the Crown an d the Orakei Maoris will be made on July 4. when a commission appointed by . the' Governor-General, Viscount Gal way, and presided over by j] r . Justice Kennedy, will commence sittings at Auckland. An invitation is being extended to all interested persons to attend the sittings of the commission and present evidence. An opportunity will also bo taken by the commission to visit tlio Orakei settlement and view areas in dispute. Broadlv speaking, there have been threo issues between the Crown and tho Maoris at Orakei. Ono of these nas settled by tho Native Land Court last- year, when a partition was made 0 f 22 iicres of land in which tho Government had purchased the shares of a number of tho Maori owners. Tho Court assigned to the Maori non-sellers 10 acres and 26 perches situated 011 the side of the hill south-east of the Orakei fiat. The second dispute concerns about four acres of land on which stands a house now blocking the road serving the . Government housing subdivision. This area was a reserve granted originally by the Crown to Bishop Sehvyn for a burial site and the endowment' of a native school. Legislation in 1925 authorised the sale of the area back to the Crown. In the third issue the Maori settlement on waterfront at Orakei is concerned. Somo years ago Maori settlers petitioned, the Government for the teturn of 40 acres on which part of the settlement exists and which was originally held by the Crown. The future of about 60 acres of what is chiefly grazing land which extends over the hills is also in dispute, the Crown being asked to relinquish land which is valued at about £50,000 as building sites.