ORDER FOR EJECTMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12194, 20 July 1925, Page 6

ORDER FOR EJECTMENT

MAORIS PETITION PARLIAMENT LAND DISPUTE IN AUCKLAND. Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, July 18. After a hearing, at the Magistrate’s Court, before Mr Cutten, S.M., counsel for defendants agreed to an order for ejectment of several Maoris from land at Takapuna leased by H. H. Adams from the Roman Catholic bishop, a similar action against other Maoris having previously been disposed of in the same way on the Magistrate’s decision subsequently being, upheld by the Supreme Court. The order in the present case was suspended for fourteen days, pending decision of defendants’ petition now before Parliament. Counsel said that some of the Maoris, who were the bishop’s parishioners, had been settled at Maori Point at a cost of £2OO for housing, and others had received £6OO at various times, which he had been told had been spent in legal proceedings. The present defendants, with the exception of two, were a new lot. THE MAORIS’ CLAIM. Te Mete, the interpreter, said the Maoris admitted that the land had been Crown granted, but stated that a condition had been that it should he used for the erection of a college for educating Maoris generally, and particularly for teaching them agriculture. As tips had not been fulfilled the land reverted to the Maoris.’ Thev had petitioned Parliament to this effect. The defendants resented being called squatters. They /were all blood relatives of the original owners of the land, and direct descendants of the people Who had lived and died there. Some had heen born there.’ It was their tribal home, and in the terms of the provision under which the grant was given they were on the land as agriculturists. They conceded 1 the point that their quarrel was not with Adams, but with the bishop or with Parliament. If Parliament decided that the original Crown grant held good, then they would not need to be put off the land; they would walk off.