TAUMARUNUI TOWNSHIP.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1289, 18 November 1911, Page 4

TAUMARUNUI TOWNSHIP.

THE NATIVE KAINGA. A notico in tho current Gazette amends a proclamation which waa issued on October 20, 1904, defining tho boundaries of the Maori village- or kainga of Tauruarunui, by the addition of the words "All sections within these boundaries leased to Europeans aro excluded." The position of tho township of Taumarunui is somewhat poculiaT. It contains a kainga, which is tho old Native township constituted under the Native Townships Act of 1895. This has on nren amounting to about one-third tho total area of tho township. The beneficial owners of the kainga lands aro Natives, but the lands are vested in tho WaiHtoManiopoto Maori Land Hoard. The kamga is controlled by the Wanganui District Maori Council.

# The principal effect of the alteration in the proclamation will bo to reduce the severity of the regulations relating to liquor. Hitherto it has boon illegal for anyone, European or Maori, to take any liquor inside the kainga boundaries, either for sale or for personal übo. Under tho amended proclamation the rule will be so far relaxed that Europeans who occupy lands, leased from tho Maoris, within the kainga, will be permitted to take iirliquprjfor.'theii; own consumption. Tho European "inhabitants of Taumarunui have on several occasions petitioned Parliament to abolish the kainga in their midst, and to relieve them from the control of the Maori District Council, on tho ground that, as things now stand, they aro restricted in exercising the powers of locnl government.

From inquiries mado yesterday, it appears that the Native Department takes up tho position that the local authority in Taunianmui is not restricted, hut is free to carry out town improvements and to rate both European and kainga lands in the ordinary way.