The Waka Maori. WELLINGTON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1874. "THE NATIVE LAND ACT AMENDMENT ACT, 1874"

Waka Maori, Volume 10, Issue 22, 3 November 1874, Page 271

The Waka Maori. WELLINGTON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1874. "THE NATIVE LAND ACT AMENDMENT ACT, 1874"

In accordance with our promise, we proceed to give, for the information of our Native readers, some explanation of the above Act. The Act contains 10 sections. The first section simply fixes the title of the Act, as given above. The second section declares that the expression "the repealed Acts," used in the Act, shall mean the Acts repealed in the fourth section of " The Native Land Act, 1873." Section 3.—This repeals the proviso to section 4 of " The Native Land Act, 1573," and enacts, in lieu thereof, that any proceedings commenced or in progress under the said repealed Acts shall be continued and perfected under the said Acts, which Acts, notwithstanding their repeal, shall continue in force for that purpose, and be deemed to have been in force for that purpose from the passing of the said Act of 1873. The proviso to section 4of the said Act of 1573, which is by this section repealed, is as follows: " And provided also that proceedings heretofore commenced and in progress under any of the said repealed Acts, before the repeal of the same, may be continued and perfected under this Act, so far as this Act extends and the circumstances of each case are compatible with the objects and provisions of this Act." By this section 3, therefore, it is directed that all proceedings commenced under any of the repealed Acts shall be continued and perfected, not under the subsequent Act of 1873, but under the provisions of the Acts under which they were commenced. Section 4. —By section 12 of the Act of 1873, it appeared that the Government contemplated paying all interpreters required for the conduct of the business of the Court throughout the colony. But this section 4 of the Act of 1874 limits such payment to interpreters appointed under section 11 of the Act of 1873, and acting as clerk or secretary to a Judge of the Court. All other interpreters, appointed under section 12 of the said Act of 1873, are to be paid by the persons who employ them, according to a scale of fees to be fixed by regulations to be made by the Grovernor in Council. Sections. —This section repeals the fifteenth section of the Act of 1573, and enacts as follows: " One or more assessors shall sit at every Court held under the said Act (1873), and assist in the proceedings ; and there shall be no decision or judgment

on any question judicially heard before the Court unless the Judge presiding and at least one assessor concur therein." The fifteenth section of the Act of 1873, hereby repealed, provided that one assessor or more assessors should sit at a Court, when required ly the presiding Judge, and assist in the proceedings but not otherwise ; and that his or their concurrence should not be necesssary to the validity of any judgment or order. Section 6 repeals that portion of section 19 of the Act of 1873 which provides that the Court rolls, maps, and all documents of the Court referring to' Native land within any district, shall be kept in the office o£ the Court of the district, under the custody of the officer appointed for such district (the " District Officer "), and directs, in lieu thereof, that they shall be kept in such office under the custody of the Judge's clerk, or secretary attached to the district. Section 7.—The forty-fourth section of the Act of 1873 provides that it shall be competent for the " claimants " to any land to select one of themselves to act as their spokesman, to conduct their case in Court; and this section 7 of the Act of 1874 directs that the word " claimants," in the aforesaid forty-fourth section of the said Act, shall mean not only the persons preferring any claim to land dealt with, or intended to be dealt with, under the said Act of 1873, but also to any person or persons having any counter-claim to such land. By section 8 it is enacted that, on application being made subsequently to the first day of July, 1873, the Governor in Council may order a rehearing of any matter heard and decided under the repealed Acts, and all the provisions of the Act of 1873 respecting rehearings, so far as applicable, shall extend to such rehearing: Provided always that such application be made within six months from the date of the decision of the Court. Section 9.—The sixty-fifth section of the Act of 1873 provides that in any case of a proposed sale or lease of land, if it be found that all the owners do not assent to such sale or lease, but that there are dissentients thereto, and if the majority of the owners are desirous that a subdivision of the land be made between them, the Court may then cause such subdivision to be made. But this section 9 of the Act of 1874 authorizes the Court to proceed and make such subdivision -when required by the owners, although there may be no such dissentients, and although the owners may not be desirous of selling or leasing the said land. Section 10.—By this section it is enacted that it shall not be necessary to deposit in the Court a plan in duplicate of any land comprised in any Memorial of ownership, as required by the seventy-first section of the Act of 1873 ; but in lieu thereof one plan shall, after certificate as by the said section provided, and

after the Inspector of Surveys stall nave made a true copy thereof, be recorded in the Court of the district, and the Inspector of Surveys shall transmit such copy to the_ Native Minister, in the manner provided by the said section 71 of the Act of 1573. This concludes the new Act passed in 1874. It has been translated into the Maori language, and will doubtless be circulated among the Natives. We trust the above explanation will assist them in arriving at a clear understanding of its provisions.