SPLITTING OF INTERESTS

Te Ao Hou, July 1956, Page 48

SPLITTING OF INTERESTS The same great obstacle in the way of the administration of Maori land generally has obtruded itself in the case of the reserved lands—that is, the breaking down of the beneficial in-

terests into shares which have become fantastically small. About 8,000 payments are made in respect of the beneficiaries over a six months' period in the Wellington Office alone, distributed as follows: Amounts over £101.5% Amounts between £1 and £1011.2% Amounts between 10/- and £17.1% Amounts under 10/-80.2% The number of payments will increase as more of the beneficiaries die, and leave their interests to be split-up between their children. A very large number of the beneficiaries receive amounts which are not worth collecting. Many of them no longer live in the district in which the particular reserve is situated. They are losing or have lost their knowledge of the reserves and the purpose of them. It is probably true to say that the authors of the reserves could not possibly have foreseen the migration of the Maoris to other districts and, particularly, to the cities or the loss of the original significance of the reserves as a result of the migration and the great increase in the Maori population. Part II of the Act contains proposals designed to put the brake on the process of fragmentation. These proposals, while similar in some respects to the provision made in the Maori Affairs Act, 1953, for dealing with uneconomic interests in ordinary Maori land, have special features due to the different nature of the property concerned. Unlike the case of ordinary Maori land the beneficiaries of the reserve lands have practically no real chance of ever obtaining possession of the land itself which is leased on a perpetually renewable basis. Their interests in practice amount to no more than an interest in income. There is also to be considered the origin of the reserves which as said above were really intended originally to be a perpetual trust for people living in a district. Hence, the new provisions proceed on the basis that there should be no traffic as between beneficiaries in these interests, instead as interests become uneconomic (i.e., fall below a certain level of income defined) they should cease to be allocated to individuals and instead fall into a general pool of which the income flows for use generally for Maori purposes and organisations in the district concerned. The scheme of the procedure is as follows: On the death of an owner in the reserved lands, his interest does not pass to his executor or administrator. The court ascertains who his successors are, and if the interest which any of the successors would take is not an economic interest, the interest is to be vested in the Maori Trustee, subject to the Maori Trustee's consent and to his paying for it, unless the amount is smaller than five shillings. An uneconomic interest is defined as an interest which does not exceed £25 in value, as ascertained in the following way: (a) If the land is leased, the annual net income attributed to the interest is capitalised at 4%. (b) If the land is not leased, the part of the value attributed to the interest by an apportionment of the capital value of land as it appears from the valuation roll. The Act also contains a provision which enables the Maori Trustee to apply to the court to vest uneconomic interests in him. This will afford an opportunity for clearing up titles without waiting for the demise of the owners. There is also provision which permits the Maori Trustee to purchase interest from equitable owners by agreement.