MAORI COUNCILS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9846, 12 September 1903, Page 4

MAORI COUNCILS.

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Tlwi Native Minister lias introduced a Bill amending tlie Maori Councils Act 1900, which gives a certain amount of home rule to the Natives. Tlie amending Bill gives the Governor power to remove any member of a Council. Power is given the Council to make by-laws for preventing the , introduction by Maoris or any other persons of alcoholic liquors into any Maori kainga, village, or pa, and to impose fines on Europeans for breaches of the by-laws and for regulating traffic through streets or roads of Maori kaihgas, villages, or pas. The Council is also given power to enforce payment of fines for breaches of the Council's by-laws on persons other than Maoris m addition to the fine imposed by the Council anyone faking intoxicating liquor without the consent of the. Council into a Maori kainga, village, or pa, is liable on conviction before a Stipendiary Magistrate for a first offence to a fine not exceeding £10/ and for a second subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding £20, or for each offence to one months' imprisonment. Any liquor so introduced jwill be forfeited. *The Governor is empowered to reserve any oyster mussel, or pipi bed, or any fishing grounds, exclusively for the use of the Maoris. Provision is also made, for the appointment of village committees and for the registration of Maori dogs by the Council, which is given power to arrange with any European local authority for the registration of dogs. Tlie Bill further provides that every person who is convicted of trespassing on or desecrating or interfering m any manner with, any Maori grant, cemetery, burial cave, or place of sepulchre, is liable to a fine not exceeding £25, or to three months' imprisonment, or to both fine and imprisonment. Jurisdiction m the case of such offences can only be exercised by a Stipendiary Magistrate on a.n information laid by tlie Chairman of a Maori Council.