NGAITAHU CLAIMS

Southland Times, Issue 19459, 26 January 1925, Page 6

NGAITAHU CLAIMS

ANOTHER ADJOURNMENT. In order to give the claimants the fullest opportunity to clear up all remaining difficulties connected with the presentation of their whakapapas, Chief Judge Jones, on Friday, agreed to adjourn until Monday the sitting of the Native Land Court at Tuahiwi, near Christchurch. The Court is sitting for the purpose of deciding the rights of applicants for shares in the grant of £354,000 authorised by the Government in settlement of the sale by the Ngaitahu tribe in 1848 of the greater portion of its South Island territory, Southland Maoris being concerned in the deal. At Friday’s sitting the Court was occupied all day in receiving 38 additional whakapapas, most of which were passed in unchallenged. This makes a total of 64 to date. The two rival committees are still exercising challenges very freely, but in most cases the challenges end in agreement after the points of ancestry upon which the opposing committee is dissatisfied are elucidated by the agents of the parties concerned. At the conclusion of the afternoon’s work, Mr J. M. McDonald, of the Taiaroa committee, applied for an adjournment until Monday, in view of a ruling by his Honour that in a fist where the qualifying parent was living, the names of the children and grandchildren be excluded, so as to simplify matters. Mr McDonald said that if they were able to devote the day to the work of amending the whakapapas in accordance with the ruling, the Court’s work on Monday would be simplified. Mr T. Pitama, chairman of the other committee, supported the application, which the Judge granted on the understanding mentioned. During the luncheon interval photographs of the agents, the committees, and the general assemblage were taken, his Honour and Mr H. W. Uru, M.P., being the central figures in each group. The greenstone memento presented to the Judge on Monday was also displayed. Probably the most interesting group was one of about thirty kaumotuas (elders), some of whom remember the occasion of the Kemp Purchase. Afterwards an address in Maori was given by Mr W. P. Waitai, formerly chief clerk and interpreter of the Native Land Court, fully explaining, with the aid of a map, the nature of the claims. He emphasised that the occupation rights, which always had to be considered in conjunction with ancestral conquest, or gift rights, were not confined to any particular district in the area of the sale. People who had such rights in any part of the area were qualified to claim.