NATIVE LAND COURTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1748, 6 September 1905, Page 69

NATIVE LAND COURTS.

THE EXISTING CONDITION OF THINGS. CAN MAORI CUSTOMS BE CODIFIED ? EXPERTS SAY “YES.” JUDGES’ PALTRY SALARIES. What, his Honor presumed, the Native Court had to do, was to incorporate English law and Maori custom together, ancl from this conglomerated law find succession, and call it according to Maori custom. It seemed to his Honor that the time had come when there should be some authoritative definition of what Maori custom or usage was. It should not be left to Native Land Court Judges to declare what they think is native custom. The time had surely arrived when native custom should be codified and enacted into a law. Property of great value now depended upon laws not appearing in any statute, nor in anv code, nor in any decisions, but depending upon what a Native Land Court might from time to time say is native custom. This was surely a most unsatisfactory state of things. No doubt the Native Land Court Judges were placed in a great difficulty. They had to adapt Maori ideas to the varying state of Maori civilisation. and to the change of laws affecting Europeans, But the time was surely ripe when these Maori customs could be codified and known as law. Their Honors were of opinion that the control of the Native Land Court was vested in the .Native Appellate Court by sections 57 and 58 of the act, and that section 59 gave supreme jurisdiction Tn the question m dispute in these proceedings to the Native Appellate Court. So long as a Native Appellate Court was “seized” of a dispute between natives and nar tives affecting the title to native Tands the Native Appellate Conrt might deal with it as it pleased. It might proceed contrary, to what •was called natural justice. It might aTSo adopt a procedure that an English Conrt, or the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, of this colony, would not adopt, and if it did so, their Honors said they could not interfere. The Legislature had, in fact, clothed it with more power than it had given to the Supreme Court of New Zealand, and though thousands ,of pounds might be involved, the interests of natives were left to it unhampered by appeal, or by the control of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal of New Zealand. This, in their Honors 1 opinion, was the law 5> and it was not for them to inquire whether the law was wise or not. DEALING WITH THOUSANDS OF POUNDS. The foregoing excerpts from two judgments recently delivered by the Supreme Court, on motions argued before it concerning certain aspects of cases tried by the Native Land. Court, give rise to a good deal of reflection. Is it wise that the Native Land Court or, more properly speaking, the Native Appellate Court, should be omnipotent? True, its findings have been reviewed by Parliamentary Commissions, with or without judicial power, at different

times, but such a proceeding is contingent on the passing of a special act of Parliament. A reporter of this paper instituted inquiries in quarters where Maori customs and the business of Native Land Courts have been made a study, to see how the Chief Justice’s suggestion that “native customs” should be codified was viewed. Gentlemen of long acquaintance with the difficulties connected with the distribution and administration of native lands agreed that mo great difficulty would be experienced in intelligently and satisfactorily compounding an analysis of the best recognised Maori customs for tbe guidance of those whose duty it is to interpret such customs at present according to their own knowledge, and with the assistance they get from the parties interested. MAORI CUSTOM AND COMMONSENSE. One gentleman interviewed was very emphatic about the matter. “I tell you,” he said, “that Maori custom is as sacred and as solemn and as good to-day as it was three hundred years ago. Maori custom is inherent in the Maori; in a word, the basis of all Maori bustom, analysed to a fine point, is plain common-sense.” The same authority had a good deal to say about the paltry salaries paid to Judges of the Native Land Court. He pointed out that Magistrates, with a salary of £450 or £500., had jurisdiction up to £2OO only, while Judges of the Native Land Court, with miserable salaries, bad authority to deal with cases involving thousands of pounds—he remembered a case in which the sum involved was close on half a million sterling. What was the result? That the best men available for Judgeships in the Native Land Courts would have nothing to do with the administration of native He did not allege that there was an absence of thoroughly competent men on the Bench at present, but he did say that many men who should - have been Judges—men who were thoroughly competent and willing to act if the position carried with it anything like a decent salary—preferred to_,use their knowledge privately, rather than make a present of it to the State. A, MAORI VIEW. Another authority—a Maori —was very enthusiastic about the suggested codification of Maori customs. He affirmed that the work could be done without any difficulty whatever. There were certain sound and well recognised basio principles of Maori custom which could not be misconstrued, and which might very well be adopted as a groundwork for carrying out the suggestion of the Chief Justice. The whole trouble about native lands, he contended, could he settled in a few short years "if the thing was gone about in a systematic and business-like manner. Tbe compilation of a Maori custom-code he considered a detail, if the suggestion was agreed on. There was no doubt that the natives were, in several instances, suffering from the effects of judicial decisions based on misconstruction of native laws and customs. MAORI ADOPTIONS. A rather interesting point cropped up here. Our authority referred to in the last paragraph dealt at some length with the Maori custom of adoption, a peculiar native ceremony whereby two tribes may mutually agree that a certain child, born or unborn, is to be given in marriage to some member of the tribe responsible for the adoption. This practice, invariably resorted to when there was a danger of the two parties drifting apart, involved certain personal rights for the adopted one, which, according to oiir informant, ceased with the death of the person who had originally come into the tribe by adoption. In the case of a woman being adopted by a neighbouring tribe, no property passed to her own people on her death. In this connection no difficulty would be met with. Every case, he affirmed —and in this he was supported by every other person spoken to by our reporter—had to be considered on its merits, with the surrounding circumstances taken into consideration. NO MANUAL NECESSARY. Another gentleman well up in Maori affairs maintained that there was no need to codify Maori customs at all if competent men were appointed to the Native Courts as Judges, and the whole difficulty would he settled in a few short years if reasonable expedition and intelligent native legislation were used. He condemned the native administration in most unmeasured terms —it was a scandalous farce and a blot which it was high time the colony got rid of. Legislation was urgently required to remedy the existing evils and absurdities. A FINAL COURT. A number of solicitors gave it as

their opinion that decisions of the Native Land Courts and Native Appellate Courts should be subject to revision by the Supreme Court, or, at all events, a bench of Supreme Court Judges. The present position was anything but satisfactory, and required a speedy change.