MAORIS’ APPEAL

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19887, 15 March 1939, Page 7

MAORIS’ APPEAL

STATUTORY RECOGNITION TREATY OF WAITANGI DEFINITION OF RIGHTS REQUEST TO MR. SAVAGE (rev Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Maori plea that the Treaty of Waitcngi should be written into the Statute" Books at the coming session of Parliament or, alternatively, that the juridical rights of the Maoris under the treaty be defined by the Court of Appeal, was mentioned m the Appeal Court this morning. On October 22 last year, the Court of Appeal dismissed- an appeal brought by Te Heu Heu Tukino, on behalf of the Ngati Tuwharetoa Maoris from the judgment of Mr. Justice Smith an action against the Aotea District Maori Land Board in respect of timber cutting and other rights over part of the land belonging to the tribe. Subsequently, Tukino obtained leave to appeal to the Privy Council, but this morning Mr. M. H. Hampsoo, Rotorua, his counsel ;n the Court of Appeal, said that as the necessary security had not bee*n found and as the time limit had .now expired, it seemed that the present form of appeal could not be continued. Explaining the Maoris’ attitude io the case, he said that yesterday representatives of the Maori people mot the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, when the following resolutions were put to him: — “That -the whole of the NgatiTuwharetoa timber claims against the Government should be investigated by a Royal Commission.

“That the Treaty of Waitangi should be written into the Statute Books next session or, alternatively, that the juridical rights of the Maoris under the Treaty of Waitangi be defined by the Court of Appeal."

These matters were of the utmost importance to the Maoris, said Mi. Hampson. If the Prime Minister s replies to the resolutions were satisfactory, it would be unnecessary to continue with Tukino’s appeal, but if they were unsatisfactory, it was intended to ask the Privy Council for special leave to appeal which would get over the difficulty which arose through the non-finding of the security ordered by the Court of Appeal.