Native Agents.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 5783, 2 June 1890, Page 2

Native Agents.

Sir, — In looking over your last issue I observed an extract from your contemporary, the Napier Evening News, in. ; reference to the above subject. A con- > fusion of ideas, or a misapprehension of 3 some sort seems to prevail as to the respective duties of Native agents and ; solicitors in regard to Native Land Court . work. In some quarters it has been implied that the functions of the one, more } or loss, clashes with or overlaps the » functions of the other. I must refer with . a certain amount of diffidence as to what takes place in other parts of the colony, . but in this district absolutely noching whatevar of the sort occurs. The basis upon which native title rests is Maori i custom and usage. The Native Land t Court for over a quarter of a century has I been determining titles to vast territories , upon that basis. A solicitor who has not given that subject special study— and very . fow have— is as much de trop, in the , Native Land Court, when that is the , point involved — Native custom and > usage— as a Native agent arguing law I points. Indeed, I have never heard of . an agent attempting to do so, although . the amusing spectacle has been wit- . nessed of a legal gentleman blissfully ignorant of Native matters, endeavoring . fruitlessly to cross-examine a shrewd > Native upon his ancestral descent. . Rev cently, I believe, in Hawke's Bay, when legal points were raised. in the. Native ' Land Court, the agents on each side 3 without hesitation reserved the discussion for their respective legal advisers,, in a which course the learned Judge concurred. I In this district, no better illustration , could be given as to the respective duties 3 to be performed by Native agents and . solicitors than citing the Poututu case. s Here were a series of disputes of a manifold character. (1) Disputes among the Natives themselves as to their ancestral rights over the three blocks. The con- " tention as to superiority of rights was as equally keen, if not more so, than in any ■* other phase of the contest. (2) Disputes i between Natives and Europeans, the latter claiming leases, conveyances, and ' J mortgages over portions of the blocks. (3) Disputes between Europeans and , Europeans, in which the Natives did not participate. And (4) disputes between Europeans, Natives, and Europeans, II where each and all were involved in a ' combination of complex transactions, so . j| completely confusing that , had any novelist succeeded in getting all his characters in a work into such a fix, it is doubtful if he would have been ever able 1 to extricate them. Upon this case coming; before the Court early last year, the s lawyers and Native agents were in attendt ance on behalf. of their various clients, a In this huge medley of confusion, it . naturally required some thought to decide? - judiciously where to begin. s The modus operaiidi laid down by .ibf*» Court was, First, to ascertain .w* d \'\ mine the relative inter* 1 "' *? aecer- , original memorial % -s under the s nnnft uui«' ■" ownerships of eveiy s N ktive owners in th i Af . Bian J r yOK -«cs. Here, then, a foundation had to be established in which solicitors of the Supreme Court were powerless to assist. This important duty therefore devolved upon Native agents and those Natives representing themselves. After the whole question of ancestral claims had been determined, and the individual interest of every Native owner— whether he had leased, sold, mortgaged, or retained, his share — ascertained, the Native agents' business was concluded, and they could retire from the field, leaving the members of the legal profession a foundation upon which to erect their legal arguments as to the various leases, sales, mortgages,- and other contracts bearing on the title, as well as the statute law in relation to the same. This arrangement proved eminently convenient to all parties whose professional duties demanded their attendance at Court. While questions .of .purely Native character were before the Court the solicitors were enabled to attend to their duties elsewhere, and when the legaL arguments commenced the presence of Native agents was no longer required. So far, therefore, from there being any clashing.pr conflict of interests between -solicitors and Nativo agents, or any attempt on the part of the latter to usurp the.f unctions of the former, as has been insinuated, each were equally essential, though' working in different spheres in placing the cases of their various clients clearly before the Court. So impressed were the Judges of the Native Land Court with the "important assistance agents can render in conducting cases before them that last year it formed one of the special subjects that came before them at the Conference held in Wellington, when they decided inter alia thafr a Native agent should pay an annual fees of five guineas a year for the privilege, off being allowed to practice. Omitting all reference to lands in the papa tipii state-' and referring only to those where Europeans and Natives are joint occupier's and claiming to be joint owners, we find that in this district there are a great many blocks of land held under memorial of ownership or under the 17th Section o£ the Native Land Act, 1867, in whioh ' Europeans claim to have purchased shares-. I do not refer to the technical dj^culties; that may stand in the w«y,:as to the> legality of the purchases, fkei European purchaser claims to b,© the owner of undivided and unascertained shares.' Probably the ham ftdes of the whole transaction has been certified to by a Trupfr.'"^ Commissioner years ago. What the European hankers after is a definite^ allocation of his undivided interest so thak "• he may know definitely what fee possesses and no longer remain in suspense. No matter how ably constituted a tril . bunal may be> nay, were it even the . Supreme Court of Appeal itself, I entirely \ fail to see how the individual interests of., the Native owners '(whether they have-. • dealt with their interests or", not) 9»i* be> ;i , ascertained and. determined,, imless afc'!,'," some stage or other of th,^, proceedings* a! „ process be gone through aimilar to that in- ' > dicated above as having taken place at the; . initial stage of enquiry in the Poututu. , I case. ' ' ' We are told " There's a tide in the affairs of men which taken afc the ' flood 1 ■ k leads on to fortune." If the .Immortal Bard lived in these days and had anything : to do with the Native lands, he would have,.-..? probably altered the sentiment and said " A :\ "There is a tide in the affairs .Native,,? which—though taken as you may— lead® God knows where. I am, <&©., . M...J. Gannon.;,' v! ";