2

I,—He

ADDRESSES OF COUNSEL. Tuesday, 25th October, 1910. Mb C P Skbebett, K.C. (with him Mr. Kelly), for the petitioners, and Mr. H. 1). Bell, K.C. on your good nature, Mr. Skerrett, the-Con, mittee would like you to assist it by giving your address in as concise a manner as is practically VOBB[ Mr Skerrett: 1 can quite appreciate what you say, and I will endeavour to give effect to your wishes ' As the Committee knowsf this petition relates to a block of land known as Tunapahore, of 5 500 acres, a settlement fourteen or fifteen miles northward o Opotiki, and th« appUoation is, in snort that the decision of a Royal Commission originally said to consist of Judge Seth-Simth, A L D Fraser and Hone Heke-a decision which was really given by Judge Seth-Smith and Hone Heke alone-should be sent to some competent tribunal for remvestigation upon three grounds, which I wUI endeavour to express succinctly and then elaborate further. The first ground is this : hat the iud™t of the Royal Commission reverses the carefully considered judgments of four sterll Courts fn favour of my clients, with all the disadvantages of lapse of time, and without tWorriTonding advantages which those Courts had of actually seeing and hearing the witnesses SaUs first Iround w'shall present to the Committee. The second ground-and it is almost inuallv cogentlfs that the title of the two contending tribes depends absolutely on occupancythat L to fay that X title of the Whanau-Apanui and the title of the Ngaitai-whom my friend Mr Bell represents-both rest and have always been based exclusively on the occupancy of the WMiiMmwSmi signs of occupation as given "* .widen ack ' now]edged by all the parties that nothing remains party to the cxc usion of the otheis and it u^JTjfJgJ J, j need not troub i e you further on coast lands, lhe claimants may ««' . ■ O n the one side and Ngaitai on the other, oo.up.tion, and, further, there w,, »«* «W MW» tl,e Committee the the Whanau-Apanui. Judge Man- eubstantially decided m « did fe t this app i ica tion client, and that circumstance was this In a P experienced Judge-