DOMINION NEWS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 55, 6 March 1913, Page 8

DOMINION NEWS.

NATIVE RATING. BRISTLING WITH DIFFICULTIES. (Pei Press Association,! Gisborne, Monday. In reply to deputations to-day, urging that the natives should be placed on the same footing as the Europeans with regard to rates, Mr Homes said that the task of rating native land seemed to be superhuman, but he had asked local bodies to make some suggestions. By getting suggestions

1 from everyone they- might evolve something that would meet the difficulty. The difficulty arose in a communist system of holding lands. It seemed to him that their efforts should be devoted to trying to individualise the titles, and then the rating difficulty would disappear. The tiling bristled with difficulties, hut if it could be j solved ho would try to do it. Ho j would call a meeting of representstives of county councils who could j deal with the matter, and especially j would clerks be welcome, because they had generally tried all the different Acts and they could give valuable suggestions. He believed that something could be done, and he was going to suggest that the three years should bo extended to six years, and then they might get a sum of money worth going for. The chairman: You agree that the natives should pay rates? The Minister: Yes. Ho added that if they worked on a communal title it was rather rough on the native who worked las section and paid rates while the others got off. Mr Herries will remain in the Gisborne district until Thursday, when he leaves for Auckland, via the Coast hays. To-morrow he will go over the railway line, and on Wednesday will be present at the hui at Manutuke. PECULIAR COMPENSATION POINT. Wellington, March 5. At the Compensation Court, Charles Alexander Russell was awarded £225 for the loss of a leg, which had to he amputated, as the result of an accident while in the employ of the Wellington City Council. * Whether or not, a sister keeping house for her brothers and maintaining herself out of their joint contributions is a dependent or merely fills the position of a landlady to lodgers was a question involved in the claim by Mary Ellen Hacquard against Thomas Ballinger and Co., Ltd. She was a married woman, separated from her husband, and kept house for her three brothers, one of whom was killed while in Ballinger’s employ. She had received one pound weekly from each brother and now asked for £156 compensation. The defence denied that claimant was a partial dependent of the deceased. Decision was, reserved. William Henry Chamberlain was awarded £67 6s and costs on a claim arising out of injuries received in an accident, while working as a wharf labourer at the Union Company’s steamer Maunganui in August last. MISHAP TO THE MAKURA. Dunedin, March 6. The Union Company lias deceived a wireless message advising ' that the Makura dropped her starboard screw when 1450 miles from Suva. * iShe is steaming fourteen knots on her port engines, and expects to arrive at Suva tomorrow afternoon (half a day late), and at Auckland next Wednesday. IMPORTANT DRAINAGE CASE. Palmerston N., MaWh 6. Judgment was given in an important caso at the Supremo Court this morning before the Chief Justice. VV. B. V. Pearce claimed from the tManawatu Drainage Board damages amounting to £SOO and the issue of a writ that certain drains he properly cleared and maintained; also that the Board ho restrained from keeping the drains so as to be a nuisance, or injurious to him. His Honor came to the conclusion that the plaintiffs had not made good the claim, and found for defendants with costs.