MAORI LAND CLAIM

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1932, Page 6

MAORI LAND CLAIM

IN CENTRE OF DUNEDIN. .PETITION TO GOVERNMENT. (DUNEDIN, February 24. The Maori land purchases made by the New Zealand Company in 1840 will be investigated if the Government decided to act on a -petition by the descendants of the Otago tribes for the recovery of a valuable block of land in Princes Street, Dunedin, now occupied by business premises and hotels. It forms a. part of the business area on the east side of Princes Street, a long block of about 18 chains, by nearly a chain deep. The land was originally intended to he a Maori reserve, and it. would be such a reserve to-day had it not been for n strange sequence of events in 1866. This- reserve was on the old foreshore of the- harbour, and was granted to the Maoris for use as a binding place for their canoes, but suhseq’uent activities on the part oi high Government officials, lost the Maoris their ownership ol land. Shortly after this had occurred a long series of petitions and protracted litigation on the part of Maoris for the recovery of the land began, hut they met with little success, and after the lapse of many years n further petition' will shortly be presented to the Minister of Native Affairs by the | descendants of the original owners of I the land.

The New Zealand Company was formed in England for the express purpose of purchasing land and settling New Zealand, its chaitei being granted subject to the condition that where land was purchased from the natives one-tenth, of that land should be set aside for the use of the natives. Instructions to that effect were issued to Colonel Wakefield before he sailed in the Tory on May 12, 1839. In due course, under its charter, and with the Crown’s rights of purchase set aside, the New Zealand Company on July 31, 1844, effected the sale of the Otakou Block, containing all the land within certain boundaries, less certain portions which the natives refused to sell. This reservation of one-tenth of all land sold was to be made to the company for the Maoris of the Ngajtalm and Ngatimnmoe people, who at that time had sole ownership, and, except for whalers and settlers at Otakou, Tiileri and Clutha. the sole occupation of a. block of 400,060 acres.

Apart altogether from the reserve rtow being claimed, however, there still remains the promised reservation of one-tenth of the land sold, or 36,363 acres. This reservation was to have taken place after the surveys had been made. If these surveys still remain unfinished, 88 years after the contract was signed, it would appear that little effort was made to fulfil the terms of that agreement.