NATIVE LAND SETTLEMENT BILL.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XVI, Issue 5186, 5 June 1885, Page 3

NATIVE LAND SETTLEMENT BILL.

• ' ! [Per Pbbss Association].! •■■" 'Wellington; , Wednesday,.; 'The -Native Land Settlement. Bill .to bo u presented to Parliamont, is now completed, .'and will be'distributed : shortly. ■'The bill .provides means by which tho nativ,e lands .'can be disposed of either by way; of; sale ; or lease, under the land laws of the colony. ; After' passed through;-the ; Native Land Court owners of a block'of hand'will have , power-to appoint from \ amoug.themselves, if they are eight or, ' iiiore in auuiber, a committee consisting ;of seven persons, who will have tho right ;to deal with the land, subject to certain' • powers. of-■ control on tho part of the. owners. If the number is seven or leas, thenr the owners themselves will have the powers of a (committee, Boards will be 'Constituted"--for certain defined districts, 'and will'have power, upon the recommendation of tho committee, to tuko land, and use it for lirnii settlement purposes in a -■way'similar to tho operations of Waste Lands ■ .Boards Commissioners. Those Boards will liavo largo powers entrusted to them, but always subject on tho ono hand to the.rocommendationß of tlio committee pf owners, and on the other hand to the regulations of the Governor-in-Council bringing into force land laws under which land will be administered. Expedition is ■ now being used in putting .lands through the Native Land Courts, with a view of bringing them speedily under the opcraj fibp of tho bill when passed. ..• ■ ■ . •