If fragmentation were, indeed, the ancient Maori title system it would be easier to understand whatever reluctance there may be to part with it; but. in point of fact, it is a European invention imposed on them less than 100 years ago. It came into being when the Maori Land Court was set up in 1865 to transmute the vague Maori customary title into a title cognisable under English law (i.e. proprietary system). In the Hunn Report on Maori Affairs some interesting statistical data was published which shows quite plainly the serious position that Maori land titles are in today and the need for a determined approach to tackle the problem. The number of separate titles registered in each district is: District Succession Orders Whangarei 1,037 Auckland 1,064 Rotorua 1,961 Gisborne 1,314 Wanganui 2,402 Palmerston North 644 Christchurch 363 — 8,785 The number of successors (32,861) added to the titles in a single year is equal to 20 per cent of the total Maori population. While the titles are degenerating at this alarming rate, two measures have been tried, but have failed to arrest the deterioration. These are known as consolidation and conversion. Consolidation is the process of amalgamating all the separate interests that any one person may own District Consolidation Schemes Completed Whangarei 11 Auckland 3 Rotorua 6 Gisborne 6 Wanganui – Palmerston North 2 Christchurch – — 28 District Titles Whangarei 7,000 Auckland 9,455 Rotorua 13,000 Gisborne 6,167 Wanganui 10,000 Palmerston North 7,695 Christchurch 3,028 — Total 56,345 In Tokerau District (Whangarei) there are said to be 1,242,200 owners' names in the titles, or an average of 177 owners in each title. The corresponding figures for other districts are not known. The following table shows the estimated rate at which new owners are being added each year by succession: Average Increase in Owners Per Succession Order Annual Net Increase Number of Owners 0.91 933 7.0 7,522 4.4 8,508 0.31 338 4.5 10,800 4.1 2,582 6.0 2,178 — 32,861 1“arranged successions” in various blocks. His dispersed land interests are added up (in value) and relocated as a combined interest in one block. It is a long, laborious and futile process that has finally been abandoned. except on a small scale. It has been going on for 50 years (since 1911) with results, as follows, which can hardly be said to have justified all the time and money involved: Acreage Average Area 5,146 468 93,765 31,255 82,992 13,832 96,175 16,029 – – 9,596 4,798 – – — — 287,674 10,277