DAMAGE ALLEGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 238, 8 October 1928, Page 8

DAMAGE ALLEGED.

LAKE TAUPO SALE.

SURRENDER OF RIGHTS.

MAORI APPEALS TO COURT

(By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The Pull Court to-day was engaged in hearing an originating summons brought by Hoaui Te Heuheu against the Crown. Mr. E. H. Northcroft appeared for the plaintiffs and Mr. A. Fair, the SolicitorGeneral, for the defendant. The general facts which led to the issue of the summons are that in 1926 an agreement was entered into between the Prime Minister, acting on behalf of the Government, and the Ngati Tuwharetoa tribe, which dwells around the borders of Lake Taupo that the bed of Lake Taupo and the rivers flowing into the lake, should be vested in the Crown, and certain compensation paid to the tribe. This was in effect a surrender of the communal fishing rights previously held by the tribe. The plaintiff, who is one of the priyate owners having land bordering on the Tongariro River, which flows into the lake, alleges that he has suffered damage by the taking of the river by Order-in-Coun-cil in pursuance of the agreement, and seeks to ascertain whether compensation can be claimed by him under the Native Land Amendment and Native Land Claims Adjustment Act, 1926, for damage alleged to have been suffered by him. Another point of interest raised in the summons is whether, in view of the provisions of the Fisheries Act, 1908, the natives could validly enter into a sale of these fishing rights to the Crown.