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Taranaki Daily News, 13 January 1932, Page 6

The Native Land Court commenced the hearing in New Plymouth yesterday of the cases set down for decision by Judge Browne. The court will probably be occupied a fortnight in dealing with applications for partitions; successions and probates of will. Notice was received by the North Taranaki Unemployment Committee yesterday that the Unemployment Board had decided that from January 1 it should be a condition precedent to obtaining relief that workers should show they are endeavouring to help themselves by cultivating their garden plots by growing vegetables. Reports from several districts in ■Taranaki state that now rivers are running low illegal taking of trout is being practised. Acclimatisation Societies concerned, it is understood, have appointed numbers of rangers amongst the license holders, and a sharp lookout is being kept to catch the poachers and bring them before the Courts. During recent years the societies have spent practically all their revenue in stocking the rivers, and streams are showing promising numbers of young trout. If poaching could be stopped in Taranaki streams the province would soon become renowned as one of the best angling districts in the Dominion.

About 40 years ago the sugar-loaf island at Moturoa, New Plymouth, known as the Saddle-back, was stocked with two pairs of French white rabbits. The isolation of the island gave perfect sanctuary to the animals, which in the course of a few years increased to thousands. In fact the locality became so heavily stocked that every vestige of vegetation was eaten out and the rabbits all died out for want of food. Old identities of New Plymouth state that when the island was approached in fishing boats the fishermen would slap the water with the flat end of an oar, and it "was a great sight to see the rabbits racing over the top of the sugar loaf to gain sanctuary on the opposite side.

The only case of unusual interest for decision by the Native Land Court at its present sitting in New Plymouth is an application lodged by the registrar for a reinvestigation of part of the native titles at Parihaka and a determination of the relative interests of persons entitled to the land as owners. The last investigation of Parihaka titles was made in 1916 under the Act of 1915 consolidating dive blocks comprising 450 acres. Under the provisions of the legislation certain land was reserved for Maoris who lived in the settlement but had no ancestral rights. These were the manene, or “strangers,” who went to live at Parihaka as followers of Te Whiti or Tohu. The pending proceedings will be taken under an Act passed last year, the object, being to ascertain what manenes are entitled to land. The Act gives the court power to give them, if their claims are approved, an absolute interest. The case will probably be heard next week. j