MAORI LAND CASE

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 45, 16 November 1940, Page 4

MAORI LAND CASE

Amicable Settlement Of Dispute As the result of a conference in which the Minister of Native Affairs, Mr. Langstone, took part last week, an amicable settlement was reached in a long-standing dispute concerning an area of approximately 150 acres of farm land at Waiuku. Information to this effect was given by Mr. A. G. Quartley, who was counsel for one of the parties, the family of the late Mr. Henry Kaihau, formerly member for the Western Maori electorate. Mr. Quartley said the case was of considerable interest to the Maori people. Mr. Kaihau left a family of young children, and by order of the Native. Land Court the property was vested in the Maori Land Board for development purposes for a period of ten years. The land was re-established as a productive farm by Princess Te Puea and subsequently came under the Board of Native Affairs and its legislation.

A lease for a term of 42 years of the property was asked for by Princess Te Puea, Mr. Quartley said. The case was referred to Judge C. E. McCormick, and an inquiry was held at Waiuku, Mr. J. M. Melville appearing for Princess Te Puea. No decision was arrived at, but finally an amicable adjustment was arranged by the Native Minister, under which princess Te Puea was to be compensated for work done on the laud through her efforts, and the land was to be returned to the Kaihau family.

Mr. Quartley said that the laud surrounded one of the oldest maraes in the Dominion, and Tawhaio, the great Maori King, had said that the land was never to be sold. That statement had become a tradition. Mr. Kaihau had been a strong supporter of the King movement, and had introduced legislation in 1917 to legalize it, but the Bill did not get past the second reading stage. His sister had married a leading member of the Ngatimahuta tribe. It was eminently satisfactory that the differences between two leading families of the Maori people had been satisfactorily adjusted.