JURIDICAL RIGHTS OF MAORIS

Southland Times, Issue 23767, 15 March 1939, Page 6

JURIDICAL RIGHTS OF MAORIS

PLEA FOR DEFINITION (United Press Association) WELLINGTON, March 14. A Maori plea that the Treaty of Waitangi should be written into the Statute Books at the coming session of Parliament or, alternatively, that the juridical rights of Maoris under the treaty be defined by the Court of Appeal was mentioned in 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 in 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. Hampson, of Rotorua, his counsel in the Court of Appeal, said that as the necessary security had not been 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 to the case, he said that yesterday representatives of the Maori people met the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage) when the following resolution was put to him: “That the whole of 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 Maoris under the Treaty of Waitangi be defined by the Court of Appeal.”

“These matters are of the utmost importance to Maoris,” said Mr Hampson. “If the Minister’s replies to the resolution are satisfactory it will be unnecessary to continue with Tukino’s appeal, but if they are unsatisfactory it is 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.”