LINK WITH PAST

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3756, 15 May 1936, Page 5

LINK WITH PAST

MAORI LAND CLAIM. An interesting link with the past was brought to light in a petition presented to the House of Representatives this week by Mr. E. T. Tirikatene (Government, Southern Maori) on behalf of the grandchildren of Wiremu Naera Pomare, who was a chief of the Ngatimutunga tribe and who was a leader of the Maori expedition which conquered the Morioris and took possession of the Chatham Islands. In the petition the family tree is indicated, and it is stated that Wiremu Naera Pomare became possessed of large interests in lands in his own right and as representing his wife. Pomare married a second time and made a will by which he provided for his own children by his second wife and also for her children by her first husband. A will was proved in the Supreme Court in 1886, when the eldest son, Tiwai Pomare, was deprived of all the lands “which upon normal expectation were his natural inheritance and which he ought to have received in accordance with Maori custom.” The petition goes on to state that Tiwai Pomare, although the eldest son of a chief with large possessions, lived and died almost a landless man, and was unable at his death to make any provision for his numerous child-

ren and grandchildren. The petitioners ask for an inquiry into the disposition of the estate of the late Wiremu Naera Pomare with a view to restoring to them lands which they consider themselves justly entitled to.