WARNED OFF.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 May 1926, Page 3

WARNED OFF.

MAORIS AND THEIR TIMBER. DISPUTE 'WITH SAWMILI.ERS. AUCKLAND, April 31). The trouble which has been brewing for some time between the Ellis and fiurnand ’limber C’o., and the native owners of tho great tract of timbei country near Mangapeehi, from which the company obtains its supplies, reached a climax this morning, when the company’s log train from the mill was stopped by the natives at the Itoundarv ..( their land. They ordered the driver t;> go no further, as the company s rights had been terminated. The driver at once sent for the manager of the mill, hut when lie arrived, lie was served with a formal notice that tho company had committed breaches of its agreement with the natives, that the agreement had been declared null and void, and that any employees of the company found upon the land would be regarded as trespassers, Apparently* the mauagei tc cognised that the natives were in earnest. for the locomotive was sent back to Mangapeehi. The line is blocked at the junction of the branches of Pukeinako and Mahai, "but the owners allowed a horse truck with food supplies and postal matter to proceed to these settlements. The cause of the trouble is the alleged failure on the part of the company to carry out an agreement drawn up in January of last year, which provided a 2s royalty for totara, and lOu for all other timber, in lieu of old royalties of Is and Id. respectively. The increased rate has not been paid, the company contending that it is not payable until the agreement has been approved by the Native Land Board, while the owners hold that it was expressly provided that the difference between the old and new royalties should he paid by the: company into a trust fund until the agreement is approved. The owners also complain that the company has not honoured an unwritten agreement to supply them With timber at cost- price.