NATIVE LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1566, 9 October 1912, Page 6

NATIVE LANDS.

EFFECT OF A RECENT DECISION. Mr. AV. D. S. Mocdonald, JI.P-, hns intimated tliijt he will ask (ho Native Minister whether his attention has been drawn to the decision of Iho Supreme Court on the effect nud operation of sec--1 tion 209 of the Native Land Act, 1909; and, if so, whether ho will take steps to 1 obtain the opinion of the Court of Appeal on the matter? In an explanatory 1 noto Mr. Macdonald states that the- effect > of tho decision, if it is sound law, will > bo very prejudicial to boua-fido transaci tions entered into with tho sanction of > Maori Land Boards. i Speaking to a reporter last evening Mr. i Macdonald said that the subject-matter , of his question wns' of great importance > not only to Gisborno and the East Coast, f but practically to the whole of tho North • Island where transactions had been en- • toroil into under-iho Act of 1909. "It is i clear to my" mind," said the member for i tho Day of Plenty, "that if the Appellate j Court upholds tho opinion of tho Chief . Justice, then in fairness to those who i have complied with the statutory conditions of tho 1909 Act, a validating clnu.so 1 should bo put into tho Native Laud 3 Amendment Act just introduced."