A TANGLED MESS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6830, 18 April 1890, Page 4

A TANGLED MESS.

EAST COAST SETTLEMENT COMPANY. [Feb. Pbess Association.] WELLINGTON, Apeii. 17. When the^Jlon 6. F. Richardson, of whose whereabouts juat now nobody knows anything, returns to Wellington the Cabinet will eater into the matter of the East Coast Settlement Company. Some weeks ago Messrs Mitchelson and Kichardson paid a visit to Gisborne, the former as Native Minister, to enquire into affairs from the Maori point of view, and the latter to protect the interests of the Colony, with regard to the land which it has been suggested the Government should acquire. These gentlemen have not yet reported to their colleagues, bnt when they do it will be to reveal an indescribable state of confusion. The Company is in liquidation, and the Natives who gave up their land have never touched any money, and some j of them have not even got the scrip which they were supposed to get ; while over most of the land the Bank of New Zealand holds a lien. What has become of the money actually raised by the sale of shares or of blocks of land (for some of the land was sold for cash) nobody seems just at present to know ; and it is quite possible that a Parliamentary Commission will be asked to enquire. A great deal has gone in salaries and other expenses, bnt whoever got the money the Natives assert they have never had any. Their patrimony is gone., and they have no meanß of living. Meanwhile interest charges go on piling up the amount due to the Bank, and the only way out of the difficulty seem 6 to be for the Government to step in. Mr 'Mitchelson states that there is no likelihood of their asking Parliament for authority to do so unless the unfortunate Natives are to get something. If this is not provided for, the Company will have to get out of it as best they can. Neither is the Government likely to give anything like the price which, in some, quarters, seems to be expected. The land is described as of splendid quality; some of it is almost in Gisborne itself, aome only a few miles off. For one block of fifteen hundred acres c£2 per acre, caßh down, was offered. At the time the Company had not acquired a title, and could not sell. Some is worth £15 to .£2O per acre. Were it possible to deal with it in any way the Native Minister says the whole area, one hundred thousand acres or thereabouts, could be disposed of in six months. It is therefore a capital opportunity for the Crown to acquire a large and valuable area of Native land, but they must get it on reasonable terms, and these termß will be such that the three parties interested — the Company, the Natives, and the Bank — will each have to sacrifice a good deal if the Government is to step in and relieve them. The outcome of the tangled mess into which matters have got in the district will probably be that some proposition will be laid before Parliament for acquiring the land on terms favourable for the Colony, at the same time leaving something for the original holders, who allege that they have been stripped of their lands without getting a shilling in return.