Native Land Courts.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 6233, 4 June 1890, Page 3

Native Land Courts.

The Napier Telegraph has the following sensible remarks on a wasteful principle adopted by the Native Land Courts : As night follows the day so notice of rehearing is always given immediately after judgment has been delivered by a Judge of a Native Land Court. It has become, apparently, as much a part of the proceedings as the taking of evidence and the delivery of judgment. It is no objection to such notice of application that no reason has been given, no cause shown why the whole of the proceedings should be gone over de novo. It is sufficient at the time to give notice, and then three months are allowed in which to invent reasons for a new trial. An immense amount of time is thus gained by the objecting parties, who have, probably, no other cause for objection to the first judgment than that their greed has not been satisfied, though, perhaps, their claim is of the most shadowy character. We remember in' one case a re hearing was granted on the application of a claimant who had objected to the first decision of the Court because he and his party had only be awarded 3000 acres in a block of some 35,000 acres. He thought he had a superior right over the lot to the exclusion or partial exclusion of the natives who had been occupying the land for generations. At the second hearing it was found that the objector had no substantial claim to the country whatever, and was consequently awarded nothing. Not to be done out of the satisfaction of his greed, this objector appealed to Parliament, and a Boyal Commission was appointed to enquire into his claims, when the judgment of the second hearing was confirmed. It is the grasping greediness of impudent pretenders to tho proprietorship of the whole country, founding their claims for the most part on a mana that might never have existed, and on a genealogy that apparently can be altered from time to time to suit the particular claim set up, which causes the endless delay in the settlement of Maori lilies. Unless the very strongest reasons can ha urged in favor of a re-hearing, a now trial should never be granted.

Ihs Levels Road Board invite tenders for several contracts. ! Tho annual examination of pupil teachers 1 of the South Canterbury Board of Education will commence on July Ist, A football match High School v. Public School past and present will be played on the High School grounds at 3.30 to-morrow. Tho s.B. Brunner proceeds direct to Dunedin from Lyttelton not calling at Timaru. Tbe first steamer for Dunedin will be the Beautiful Star on Saturday at 5 p m. Dr Grace, talking to tho deputation to him about tbe Wellington tramway men’s claim, said there was nothing in the tramways, “ I’ll toss you for the lot, hang me if I don’t!” Among tho " all-fired assortment of samples ” that the Yankee said made up New Zealand weather, we have an odd one to-day, —what looked like a nor’wester in the hillls and a dead calm here. Two drunks wore dealt with by tho Resident Magistrate this morning in tbe usual way, A first offender was fined in sa; the other, who had been up before, and was arrested at the railway station, James Sinclair by name, was fined 20s and 3s costs.

The London City Clerks Alliance, numbering several thousand members, begun for the purpose of encouraging thrift and providence, has added to its programme the principles of a trade union, and its first work is to be a campaign against foreign clerks. A Sydney paper says that the disgust and contempt produced by the methods of the British court-martial in Sydney have done more to alienate sympathy from Imperial institutions than all the democratic leaderwriting and platform talking done during the last ten years.

A wharf-labourer named Cooper met with a slight accident this morning. Ho was employed on a truck in discharging coal from the Wareatea, and a full basket knocked him off the truck. He was insensible when picked up, and a doctor was sent for, but before one arrived Cooper bad come round and was at work again.

Of a number of tanks of seeds landed by the Dingadeo to-day many were of 'steel, much lighter than the iron ones so well known in this country. The steel of which they are made is so thin that a cross corrugation is made in each side to stiffen it. The seams are somehow fastened, riveted or otherwise, inside, and on one side the edges are protected by a piece of iron piping. A pigeon was caught by a Timaru resident in hia garden yesterday in an exhausted state, as if it had made a long journey. It has a light ring round one leg, with “ H.E., 1889” neatly lettered on it. The bird’s captor wonders whether it was one of tbe batch of Christchurch birds released at Oamaru for a flight home.