West Coast Lessees’ League.

Opunake Times, Volume IV, Issue 197, 22 May 1896, Page 3

West Coast Lessees’ League.

The following correspondence has passed between Mr W. J. V\'el!s. Secretary of the League, and tbe Premier : To the Hon the Premier,— Sir, —Being one of the delegates appointed by the committee of the West Coast Lessees’ League to present a petition to the House of Representatives last session, remainingin Wellington to hear the report of the Committee on such petition, and hearing that the Government promised action in the matter, I wish to lay before your Government the importance of the question. The Public Trustee’s arbitrary action under the existing Act has caused the formation of the West Coast Lessees’ League, numbering nearly 300 taxpayers of the Colony, who will continue to agitate to obtain security of tenure, and their improvements. The welfare of some 1500 men, women and children depends on the action taken. That the upset value placed on the land was far too high, after action of the Government proved. That value should be the basis Of owners’ interest at any time, any advance on that value is due to our occupation, labor, and money together with general and local taxation necessary to increasing progress and civilization. The expensive, farcial, and unjust valuations we are now subject to without any appeal, no matter how arrived at, is simply confiscation of njfiny years labor, and much money spent in improving our holdings. The crass ignorance of local matters, animus against settlers, and sublime egotism displayed by the Public Trustee before the waste lands committee proves him (however good he may be as an official) incapable of successfully administering this estate. Were the Government to take the whole of these lands (not actually required by the natives) under the Land for Settlement Act, the natives would receive their interest in place of rent, thus insuring them against want, present tenants becoming tenants of the Crown, many would obtain a loan through the Advances to Settlers Act and purchase their holdings, others obtain a lease in perpetuity, and thus secure their improve-ments-and tenancy. The remaining portion would be readily let if dealt with by the Land Board and the whole coast would be stimulated by active progressive settlement. pould this be done a final settlement of a vexed question would be obtained at little cost, beneficial alike to Europeans and Natives. The Hon the Minister for Lands promised me that all natives living on their individual allotments should receive tkeir leases thus making them liable for rating purposes.—l am, &0., W. J. Wells. Puniho, 6/4/96

Letter from the Premier to Mr W. J. Wells. Sir, —I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th instant, in which you submit that fresh legislation should be proposed in the interests of the lessees of the West Coast Settlement Reserves. The principle of “ The West Coast Settlement Reserves Act 1892 ” is an administration of the reserves as a trust in the interests, not of the lessees, but of the private persons who are beneficially interested in the estate. I understand your suggestion, however, to be that the beneficiaries, who happen, as you know, to be all natives, should, for the purpose of affording a relief to the lessees, be deprived of their estate by legislation, such as would authorise the purchase of the property by the Crown, or destroy the present administration. Now it is the obvious duty of the Government to be careful to see that

in all proposals for legislation the rights of private parties may not be violated, and to be especially careful in this respect where the proposals may affect natives. But it would appear that you desire an arbitrary transfer of rights which are already vested by law in one party to another party, to be authorised by legislation, which should only apply to the one estate in question. Your complaint, indeed, amounts to

an objection to the terms of the leases

to the tenants of an estate adminis- , tered by a trustee for private persons, . and such a complaint from tenants is obviously tantamount to an acknowledgment that the Trustee is looking well to the interests, which it is his duty to serve. In such a case it is difficult to see how the Government could be justified in proposing by any legislation that should not be applicable to all private lands to grant the relief which the tenants expect. With regard to the alleged promise of the Minister of Lands that all natives living on their individual allotments should receive their leases, and be thus made liable for rates, you must, I think, be under some misapprehension, for I need hardly observe that such a promise, so lar as it should imply an intention on the part of the Minister to influence the Public Trustee, could not be made good without the betrayal of the obligations of the latter to bis trust, and thus operating to render invalid any lease under the Act. The Minister was, perhaps, communicating to you the intention of the Public Trustee to grant such leases in cases where he should deem it- expedient to do so in the interests of the natives. The Public Trustee, in his administration of the West Coast Settlement Reserves, or indeed, of any other trust, is, as you doubtless know, the servant of the trust. In the exOTcise of his discretion he cannot lawfully be influenced otherwise than by the interests of his trust. He obedience even to an instruction of the Government’in respect to the acts of his adminintration would be an evidence of his failure to exercise the discretion

essential to the validity of such A-.t-, and might form a good ground for legal proceedings to upset the leases. The administration of the Public Trustee, indeed, is required by law and by a consideration of the facts that the interests of the trust may be in conflict with the interests of the Government to be as independent as the administration of the Courts of Justice. —I am, &0., E. J. Seddon, Premier.