NATIVE CLAIMS

Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2492, 14 March 1867, Page 4

NATIVE CLAIMS

The judgment in the case of claimants to the Ngatiruanui Coast Block has been published. It runs as follows : — This is a portion of the Ngatiruanui Coast Block, taken under the authority of the New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863, by an order in Council dated Sept. 2nd, 1865. The Crown Agent, on behalf of the Colonial Secretary, having abandoned the right of the Crown to take that portion of the JSTgatiruanui Coast Block which lies to the east of the Waitotara river, and of a line running 20 deg. 30 min. east of north, as shown' on the map, the court has to deal with claims for compensation in respect only of the confiscated land lying to the west of that boundary.

.The claims referred to this court purporting to relate to land between KaupoIconui and "Waitotara rivers are 68 in number, and contain 630 names of claimants. In the course of the investigation a large proportion of these names have been shown to be duplicates. Some of the claimants have failed to appear before the court either personally or by agent, and their claims have not' been

heard. The numter of persons interests in the claims heard by the' Court is 265 Of these the claims of 119 are admitted, those of 146 are rejected. Of the last number 51 were found to be. excluded, under the V. clause of the New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863. The admitted claims are divided into two classes: (1.) Claims established by. proof of actual residence and cultivation up to witlr r. ;: recent period; these are 40 in number : (2.) Claims of persons long absent and settled elsewhere, but who themselves, or whose parents, or near relatives, were in the year IS4O actual owners and possessors of the land, the subject of claim. These are 79 in number. Ancestral claims where neither the claimant nor his parents have ever occupied as settled residents are rejected. The evidence before the Court supplies the following data; — The area of that portion of the Ngatiruanui coast block, which is the sTibject of the present investigation, is computed to be 428,000 acres. The open land and available bush extending five miles and a half inland from the coast line is estimated at 131,720 acres, leaving as bush land, unavailable 296,280 acres. The persons interested in this land as residents number 997. Of these 957 have been engaged in rebellion since January, 1563, and 40 are residents, whose claims to compensation are admitted. The Crown having elected to give the claimants land in lieu of money as compensation for their claims, it is ordered by the Court that the claimants whose names are set down in the schedule appended hereto and marked A are entitled to receive four thousand eight hundred (4S00) acres of open and available land, and eleven thousand two hundred (11,200) acres of bush land, being at the rate of one hundred and twenty (120) acres each of open and available land to be of value equal to the average value of land lying within five miles and a-half inland of the coast line between "Waitototara and Kaupokonui, and the bush land to be of value equal to the average value of bush land lying beyond five miles and a-half from the coast line. i

It is further ordered that the claimants whose names are set down in the schedule appended hereto, and marked B, are entitled to receive three hundred and ninety-five (395) acres of open and available land, and eight hundred and sixtynine (869) acres of bush land, being at the rate of five (5) acres each of available and eleven (11) acres each of bush land. The open and available land and the bush land to be of the same value respectively as prescribed in the ca.se of the claimants in schedule A. The names of the claimants to whom awards have been made are not yet published.