NATIVE LAND DEAL

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2809, 29 June 1916, Page 6

NATIVE LAND DEAL

A WAIRARAPA CASE, A. reply was given yesterday by the Prime Minister to Mr. Hornsby's request for an inquiry into the conduct of W. B. Chennells (while he was an officer of the Government and agent of the Public Trust Office in Masterton), in connection with a Native land deal, by which, it was alleged, Rangi Kerehoma was Europeanised, and deprived of 3000 acres of land at a price far below its value. ' Mr. Massey's reply was as follows:— "An inquiry was held about two yearil ago by the Public Trustee under instructions from tho Hon. Mr. Herdmim, then Minister in Charge of the Public Trust Office. The inquiry covered the whole of the dealings with Rangi ICoreboma's lands by Mr. Chennells, Mr. Beard, and their rcspectivo families. As tho result of his inquiry, tho Public Trustee recommended that Mr. Chonnell's position ns agent of the Public Trust Office at Masterton should bo abolished, and that a branch of the office should be established there under the control of an officer of the staff as district manager. The Minister approved this recommendation, and it was given effect to accordingly. Mr. Chennells was not acting as agent of the Public Trust Office in tho transaction referred to, but the Government is alive to the fact that with many'settlers in the Masterton district tho impression prevails that the- office was di T rcctly or indirectly implicated, and the question of a public inquiry is under consideration, in order that tho fuD facts may bo publicly known."