SPECULATORS and NATIVE LANDS.

Patea Mail, 15 March 1882, Page 3

SPECULATORS and NATIVE LANDS.

A correspondent of the Auckland Herald , writing from Ohincmutu about the Rotorua district, says : “ There is a move amongst the tribes within the boundaries prescribed by the Thermal Springs District Act. Surveyors are diligent night and day carrying on their respective claims in opposition to the Government. It will be remembered by many that the renowned chief Wiremu Maihe te Rangikaheko is by birth a Ngatiwhakauc chief, but by family tics is connected with the Ngatipikiao tribe. It having come to the knowledge of Maihe that the Ngatipikiaos were preparing to commence their tribal survey of the Tohepotai, he arranged with his informant to cut by night the lines of his tribe, which were disputed ones, and which divide Rotoiti from Rotorua. , This was done during the night, until in the morn they got to a waerangi, where an old Maori met them and seized the chain. This does not seem to have detained them long, for after a litttle sweet korero it was returned them. When Ngatipikiao arose they found, the lines had been cut through their . lands, which chagrined them greatly. They now say they will carry out against all opposition their boundary survey, and that at all hazards. To complete this survey they have agreed to sell the Whakarewa block, near Richmond, Matata, and which contains 36,000 acres. The Government had originally leased this land, and were on the eve of purchasing it, but the great land company, with their agents and long purses, are at work, and in defiance of the Government, Thermal Acts, or proclamations, have advanced £SOO over the Government, and will probably so arrange matters on the quiet with the Government—if not just now, by and by—until at last the company,will be the proprietors.