Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5004, 7 April 1877, Page 2

From Napier papers to hand yesterday we learn that another batch of writs has been taken out by the “Repudiation” party against runholders in Hawke’s Bay. Messrs. John Gibson Kinross, Thomas Kennedy Newton, and Frbdk. Sutton are the victims on this occasion, and the cases will, we believe, be tried in Napier, before Mr. Justice Richmond next June. No one probably is better acquainted with the Hawke’s Bay land titles than Judge Richmond, for he sat some years ago as Commissioner, to take evidence and draw up a report on the subject. Into the merits of these land disputes we do not desire to enter, but we fear our predictions will prove true that wholesale attacks will be made on the titles of many who consider themselves secure, unless they consent to pay the blackmail that willbelevied upon them . We hear that some of the owners of the Heretaunga Block, on which stands a township, and through which the railway passes, who have bought from previous owners who purchased from the natives, are likely to have actions of ejectment brought against them. If we remember rightly, the title to the block is disputed on the ground that Arihx, a native woman, who: had the largest share in the "block, was not of age when she signed the deed, and the' curious part of the matter is that nobody seems' to know rightly what her real age is. The clergyman who christened Her it was expected could have thrown some light on the subject, but his evidence, we believe, amounted to nothing. It is not, we understand, disputed that the natives got valuable consideration for selling this land to the pakehas; but advantage is taken of an, alleged legal flaw in the title, and what is done in ■ the case of the Heretaunga Block will, wo may be sure, be repeated wherever there'is a chance. Every title that can bo ‘disputed will be disputed, unless we are greatly mistaken, and the result cannot be otherwise than to lower the value

of lands in the Hawke’s Bay District, and to retard the progress and settlement of one of the most fertile portions of the colony. Of course the natives have the right to go to law; and were they doing so purely of their own volition, it would be well and good, but it is known that the Repudiation party is established with the sole object of promoting strife and litigation. It is not for the sake of the natives, but for the interests of one well-known person, his friends and legal advisers, that this institution was established, with its offices and its newspaper, and its Maori and pakeha hangers-on. We wish the Hawke’s Bay settlers well out of their difficulties.