The Poverty Bay Herald. AND East Ooast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 843, 24 July 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald. AND East Ooast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. THURSDAY, JULY 24, 1879.

We took occasion some week ago, on the departure of the Native Lands Court for the Wairoa, to allude to the extremely unsatisfactory manner m which the Court came, looked at cases, and then went away. The Court is here now, but not to sit ; to-morrow it will be gone to Waiapu, and when it tmXL sit here is quite beyond our ability to conjecture, and almost beyond the patience of the parties interested to contemplate. Here are cases of vital importance to the welfare, we had well-nigh said, the peace, of the district, calmly shunted for the last ten years, and cases of investigation of Native title, which might well stand over for a while are taken m preference. It will be said that nearly everything which remains for the Native Lands' Court to do here is of a difficult and intricate nature, more especially the subdivision cases. Grafted ; but will these things become any the less difficult or intricate by lapse of time? Will they not rather become the more so % Would it nob be far better to let the purchasers know the worst at once^give them their piece, and the Natives theirs, and let each party do as he wants with his own ? ' We have no hesitation m asserting that were these disputes once settled, the district would be relieved of an incubus which has long oppressed it, and the result of which relief would be amply apparent m much less than a year. Further, we de not believe that there would be so much difficulty as apprehended if the parties would only put their shoulders to the wheel. Anything is preferrable to the present inactivity which practically locks up the district. We aye reliably informed that there are cases which will be still more difficult to settle next year. Disputes of this nature do not usually improve by delay, and m the present instance still further complications will arise, and are daily developing themselves, the ultimate disposal of which will be a very difficult and tiresome matter. We do not expect that these wrongs will right themselves, and so long as they exist, the progress of the district must be very much retarded, and that as, heretofore, litigation will grow out of these unsettled disputes. We should counsel all those interested m the progress of the district to join m representing to the Government the great necessity which exists for a resident Court here, with a Native Lands' Court office, for at least three years. Wher-e all the records of the district are we know not ; where deeds affecting Native land are registered we know not ; but this we do know, that it is next to impossible to procure any information out of the Native Lands Court office, and here there is none. In this matter we should be up and doing at once, and put an end to the possibility of further complications arising.