VESTED MAORI LANDS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 81, Issue 7253, 18 September 1950, Page 7

VESTED MAORI LANDS

COMMISSION SITS IN TE KUITI NEARLY £75,000 COMPENSATION INVOLVED Improvements of the vested Moari lands in those leaseholds where no compensation was payable in the Waikato-Maniapoto Land District were valued at £9095, and on other land leased subject to improvement clauses the total value of improvements was in the vicinity of £65,209, Mr. Palmer, representing this board, told the Vested Maori Land Commission when making submissions when the sitting of the Commission commenced in the Te Kuiti Courthouse last week. An area of 199,148 acres of Maori land had been vested in the board in the Waikato-Maniapoto district. Of this 10,843 acres had been re-invested in the owners, 103,085 acres had been sold to the Crown, and 34,790 to individuals, 7790 had been subject to leases, and 21,750 acres were not dealt with. Of fhis latter total the Maraeroa C Block, representing some 13,000 acres, was subject to timber rights—recently those cutting rights had been extended to 1970. Other areas, such as portion of Rangitoto, Mohakatino, and subdivision of the Kawhia South area, were either occupied by Maoris or not suitable for farming purposes. In the Waikato-Maniapoto Maori Land District much of the land was vested in terms of Part 14 of the Maori Land Act in pursuance of the recommendations of Sir Robert Stout and Sir Apirana Ngata after 1910, and therefore had a statutory right of compensation. No Compensation in Some Areas There were, however, a number of leases of vested land which contained no right of compensation—part of a

Kinohaku Block had a compensation clause limited to £3 an acre, but there were virtually no improvements effected; the Mohakatino-Paranihi, and Ohura South blocks had no right of compensation, the lease of a Rangi-toto-Tuhua block, expiring in 1951, contained no right of compensation, whilst a Tuhua Block was virtually unique in that at the end of the first period of the lease the lessee had elected to surrender his lease, receive the £9OO effected as improvements, and it had since been released. Portion of the Wharepuhunga block had no right of compensation, and the blocks had £3OO-£4OO of improvements with the lease expiring in 1952.