The Confirmed Leases.

Maori Record : a journal devoted to the advancement of the Maori people, Volume I, Issue 2, 1 August 1905, Page 2

The Confirmed Leases.

Before the Royal Commissioners made the West Coast Reserves very large ones had been made south of Waingongoro, and these were subsequently merged in the former. But long before that settlement was attempted the natives, wishing to beneficially occupy the old reserves, made agreements to lease with Europeans, placing the rent at such a figure that the lessees suffered no hardship when they were to hand back the lands, improved, to the natives at the end of the respective terms. But the day of resumption never arrived. The dream of the Maori of farming his own land was never allowed to materialise. The leases were declared invalid, but the Commissioners Fox and Bell, on investigation, finding some of them bona fide between the parties, confirmed them for the respective terms for which they were made. There were others repudiated by the Commissioners, but those were subsequently confirmed by Mr Thos. Mackay. These two classes of lease, those considered in good faith and those lacking this hall mark, are what are called the confirmed leases. The improvements were the property of the natives, but in 1887 legislation was passed by which the lessees could surrender their old leases and acquire new ones from the Public Trustee. The Act provided for Arbitration Courts to sit, but the natives disapproved of the whole proceedings, and refused to appoint an arbitrator. The Government appointed one

for them. The improvements were taken away from the natives and given to the lessees. The term for which the leases were to be made was thirty years. The Crown Grants say the lands cannot be leased for a longer term than twentyone years “without fine, premium or foregift.” The natives sued, in the Supreme Court, the Public Trustee. The latter was defeated, on the ground that the regulations were ultra vires of the Crown Grants. But it was a costly proceeding for the natives. We believe they had to pay the entire cost, although they won. It was palpable that unless the conditions of the Crown Grant were destroyed, the Government and the lessees could not do as they wished. They were destroyed by the Act of 1892. The lands were vested in the Public Trustee in fee simple, although they had been granted to the nominated natives by Her Majesty Queen Victoria for ever. The Public Trustee has a dual position. By one section of the Act he holds the lands for the benefit of the owners; by another he is empowered to act as if he were absolute owner of the lands The latter pose is much in evidence. The provision of the Act which forbids any European lessee from enquiring more than 640 acres was avoided, and one owner-lessee acquired about 4000 acres. The natives on renewal of leases tried to get the large area subdivided for closer settlement; they tried in vain. But a lessee holding 1000 acres lately advertised the goodwill of it for sale, in areas suitable for dairy farming, asking, we are told, £8 or £9 per acre for the goodwill, although the natives by the Crown Grants were not allowed to take any “fine, premium, or foregift,” and the improvements are the property of the natives till paid for. All partition by the natives through the Native Land Court was stopped by the Act of 1892. Before that they were in a fair way of each obtaining his individual holding. Taking one Grant as a sample, the Court found that three-fourths of the land was subject to lease, and one quarter only remained for occupation by the owners. At that time it was never anticipated that the temporary leases would be made perpetual. The Supreme Court declared the improvements on the leased lands belonged to the natives, but lessees pleading poverty, were allowed to pay interest only on the capital sum, the value of the improvements. Some comparatively wealthy lessees pay this interest. The natives pay land-tax, not on what they individually own, but on the whole big block, with assessments intended for “social pests.” They pay full rates, and have no voice in the expenditure. They let the lands leased, temporarily, hoping to get them back improved. The Legislature has taken them from the natives for ever, and defamed the Queen’s Crown Grant. The voice given them in fixing the rental has proved inoperative in practice. The final decision rests with the Public Trustee. In the late trouble at Greymouth it was said : It seems that there was a covert agreement amongst the leaseholders in Greymouth not to attempt to outbid each other at the sale.” That was in the South Island. On the reserves we are writing of it is more than suspected that there has been covert agreement between the natives, agents of the Maori owners, and intending lessees, by which low rentals are fixed and the

majority of the natives wronged. The natives cannot now get back the land they leased but for a time, and the remainder they have to pay rent for, although they are the owners thereof. And some of them lease land from Europeans on which to grow potatoes. (For short history of the confirmed leases see Hansard, Vol. 27: Speeches of the Hon. E. C. J. Stevens and others.)

The following are extracts from a correspondence which lately appeared in the Hawera and Normanby Stab, a paper published in a town in the heart of the reserves