Pataka at Mourea Pa. Lake Rotitl. (PHOTO: PETER BLANC One of the things Major Vercoe has learnt is the wisdom of splitting up incorporations into areas belonging as much as possible to one family group. Often a block of Maori land contains several thousand acres and has a very complex ownership. It is easier in practice to manage such a block simply and harmoniously and far better results are obtained if ownership is confined to immediate relatives and the ultimate ideal around Lake Rotoiti is to have areas of about 400–500 acres settled by the nominee of one family, as an individual settler. This is often not so easy to achieve but it is an ideal worth working for. Some parents of Ngati Pikiao have helped by vesting their interests in their children which helps them if they are farming on land they own in part. Rei Vercoe has one of these, but as he explained to us, thE duties were very heavy. Once he had given his land, how did people think he could pay gift duties? The Major does not regard this of the more brilliant European inventions. The land on which we were sitting was T block, the most recent of the Ngati Pikiaoing ventures. It lies just a few miles away Lake Rotoiti, at the end of Hongi's Trac years it was leased to miller and the mill there. In 1954 the owners, from their own and with some finance from the Maori Trustee began to develop it as a sheep and cattle station Under the management of Mr Pirimi Wha of the owners of the block, new areas are