Land Court Established

Te Ao Hou, October 1956, Page 9

Land Court Established The obvious course was therefore taken of setting up a special tribunal to determine ownership, very much for the purpose of ensuring that when purchases or leases were made they would be made from the right people and there would be made from the right people and there would be no argument. There was no question but that from the European point of view purchasing was necessary, with thousands of square miles in the North Island held by the Maoris and surplus to their actual needs. Settlers were still arriving, and routine systems of farming were being evolved. Communications still needed much development. In addition, although this probably had less importance attached to it, such a tribunal would enable effect to be given to the undertakings of the Treaty of Waitangi to confirm the rights of the Maoris to their land. Before those rights could be confirmed they must be ascertained. Disputes between tribes and hapus must be settled, the point of reference being the position at the time of the Treaty itself. The Maoris who had had interests in land were entitled to look to the Government or the Crown for protection against encroachment by Europeans or other Maoris. In the old days, as a last resort the strong arm was an effective title deed, but now some other means had to be found. An attempt to set up such a tribunal was made in 1862 when the first Native Lands Act was passed. For a number of reasons however, this was abortive. It was operated only in the far northern districts and to a very minor extent and it was not until 1865 that the first effective Court was set up by the Native Lands Act, 1865. The process by which the Court dealt with lands brought before it was essentially the same as was followed right down to the early part of this century, when, except for a very few small areas, the last of the blocks of Maori customary land were being dealt with. Claims were lodged, the land was surveyed, a sitting was held where the various claimants stated the nature of their claims and led evidence. The Court then, from the conflicting evidence, determined who were the owners

as at 1840, the date of the Treaty, and issued a certificate of ownership which resulted in the issue of a Crown Grant. But the Court could only put 10 names in any certificate and accordingly inserted the names of ten or less persons selected by the owners—normally the leading chiefs or heads of families—the idea being clearly that they should hold for and on behalf of the hapu or tribe. It was, in fact, possible for the Court instead to issue the certificate in the name of a tribe or hapu. The trouble about this was that no method was provided of dealing with land in this way, that is, of selling or leasing, and the eyes of the Maoris as well as those of Europeans were turned towards alienating. The consequence of the ten owner system was, unhappily in many cases that the persons (usually chiefs) nominated as owners dealth with the land as if it were their absolute property, and in many cases the remaining beneficial owners got nothing. Indeed, various steps were taken to avoid this, and later the names of all members of the tribe were inserted as beneficial owners, but the grantees still had power to lease. Eventually the law required, as perhaps it should have done from the start, the insertion of all names.