OWNERSHIP OF MUTTON-BIRD RIGHTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 10242, 3 September 1909, Page 4

OWNERSHIP OF MUTTON-BIRD RIGHTS.

(Per Press Association.) Invercargili, September 2. At the Supreme Court to-day Hannah Pohio Pvickus (Temuka) claimed £IOO damages from William Spencer (Bluff) for assault and ejectment on the 11th April from Horomamae, a mutton-bird island near Stewart Island. Spencer claimed exclusive right to go mutton-birding on that island on the ground of long custom, and that his family descended from one of the chiefs who were the original owners of the Stewart and the adjoining Islands when ceded to the Government in 1864; while the plaintiff claims that her father (Pohio) was one of the original owners, and the same deed of cession gives her equal privileges with the defendant. She went to the island, and Spencer and .his wife ejected her, using, she alleges, undue violence. Attention was drawn to the fact that an Order-in-Council was made before the action started, giving the Native Land Court jurisdiction to enquire into mutton-birding rights in these islands, and Mr Justice Williams said that the Supreme Court could not proceed till the jurisdiction of the Native Land Court had been evoked to settle the question of privilege. If the defendant there failed to establish his claim to the privilege the Supreme Court could then assess the amount of damages.

The case was ordered to stand over meantime. The Court has finished here. -