NATIVE LANDS IN THE ROHE POTAE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 16, 8 February 1907, Page 2

NATIVE LANDS IN THE ROHE POTAE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—The article on the above subject, which appeared inyour last issue, only partially touched 011 the (to my thinking) most important part of the whole thing—Native Surveys. It is a well-knoWn fact that the greater portion of the blocks, in the King Country, at any rate, have been very loosely surveyed, and this notwithstanding the fact that these surveys have been passed and approved bv the Government Surveyor, and the plans and areas have the oilicial certificate of correctness, placed upon them. Then, by and bve, these blocks are subdivided by the Native Land Court, amongst the various hapus, in accordance with these plans, and the areas of each subdivision are lixed and marked 011 the plan by the judge, to accord with his ruling. Then, afterwards, the Natives, jn one or more of these subdivisions, proceed to deal with the Pakelia, for a lease or

purchase. To complete this transaction, the survey of the subdivisions is necssary, and then the 1 rouble commences, as it is very seldom found that the areas and boundaries of Ihese subdivisions tally with the order of the Court, it being generally foil ml that the area of (lie whole block is i wrong, and this, not infrequently, T after the Orders have been made out. |J|E~ Thc consequence is thai, supposing the whole area is shorl, then every subdivision must suffer in proportion, whicli? means that every Order has to be altered. The question then arises, who is going to pay for these blunders? The original plan has been certified by the Government, which does not forget to charge the unfortunate Maori the full expenses of the survey, and where not paid, then the survey lien is registered against the land, and we have the fact that at the Native Land Court now sitting at Otorohanga, one of the Survey Office officials has been very busy cutting out portions of each block, to recoup these survey liens. This would be entirely satisfactory if the surveys for which they are acquiring these, portions, were correct, as it is only fair that the Native should pay for the survey of his land, but it is very notorious that even when, through the blunders of the Government Surveyors, they are grossly incorrect, still the Government will not accept any responsibility, and cooly calls upon the Native to pay for a fresh survey, for which he has, in fact already paid. And we must bear in mind, that these titles are now under the Land Transfer Act, which requires an accurate survey, so that there is no getting away from the fact that a fresh survey, in a large number of cases, is compulsory, and that the Government is at the present time engaged in acquiring large areas of land to which they have not the shadow of a right, on account of the incorrectness of their survey. The Government —• , make a great show of protecting the " poor Maori" against the wicked Pakcha, but they fail to see how their acquisition of these portions of Native Land is robbing the Maori worse than any iPakeha ventures to do. JI is high time something was done to call the Government to account, or to explain its action. I am, etc., KING COUNTRY RESIDENT.