VALIDATION COURT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7659, 18 June 1896, Page 3

VALIDATION COURT.

THE EAST COAST NATIVE LAND BOARD BILL.

I JUDGMENT BY JUDGE GUDGEON.

In an application made by Mr W. L. Bees for a certificate of the Court to Mr VVi Pere's proposed Bill, after hearing lengthy argument in which Mr Rees and Mr Lysnar took part, His Honor Judge Gudgeon delivered the following judgment : — " With reference to this application to the Court under ' The Private Estates Bill Act, 1867,' section 6, there is every reason why the Court should report favorably on the Bill now before it, and approve the desire of the two trustees to be relieved of the great responsibility which devolved upon them under the agreement of the 17th February, 1892. "The preamble to the Bill describes the situation accurately and without exaggeration. " Tho .estate acquired by tho trustees under the above-mentioned agreement requires able and careful administration, and this can hardly be expected under the present system, inasmuch that Mr Carroll can rarely leave his Ministerial duties, and Mr Wi Pere has not had the training calculated to fit him for the management of an important estate. " That the present management is not satisfactory may be inferred from the case of the Faremata block, on which there is a mortgage of £14,000. The land is probably worth at least £21,000, but it iB very doubtful if at the present moment it paya half of the interest on the £14,000. '

" If the lands now held by the Assets Company as Becurity for tho debt due -to that institution are ever to be redeemed, it can only be done by energetic and economical administration, and by borrowing money at the lowest possible rate of interest in order to pay off the Assets Company, and by managing the estate so that each block shall contribute something towards interest and sinking fund.

"At the present moment tho debt, so far from being reduced, is increasing yearly by force of unpaid interest, and for this, if for no other reason, the Court would not be justified in authorising the Trustees to borrow money for the purpose of improving any one of the blocks since there would be no guarantee that tho money would be judiciously spent.

" The Court ia of opinion that the estates now in the hands of the trustees can only be managed satisfactorily by a Board invested by statute with ample powers. That such Board should be nominated from persons living in this district who are known to the Maoris, and in whom they have confidence ; and that as the Maoris have a deeply rooted distrust of the Public Trustee, it is not advisable that this officer of the Government should have power to interfere with the proposed Board. These matters can only be obtained by legislation." The formal certificate will be taken out upon this judgment and forwarded to Wellington.