Untitled

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 926, 16 March 1881, Page 4

We are extremely glad that the Native Land Court now sitting in Gisborne, sees a possible way of administering the hitherto unworkable Native Land Acts, so as to unlock the lands held under certificate of title, issued in accordance with the Act of 1867. At times it has seemed as if the difficulties which suggested themselves to the Court, in acceding to the procedure asked from it, were insurmountable. Now, happily, one by one, these difficulties have been disposed of; not by being ridden over, and kept back, but by being argued out, face to face, and overcome. In the Pouawa case we have a good illustration of the difficulties the Legislature creates by the issue of imperfect Acts. We find all parties interested in Pouawa consenting to the course suggested to the Court, and yet the technical defects of the Acts themselves have nearly defeated the very objects such Acts were framed to effect —viz., the satisfactory settlement of the Native lands. The Court has now agreed to have before it the original Certificate of Title ; the surrender of the lease, and the deed of sale ; and to allow the action in regard to these documents to be sufficiently simultaneous, so as not to prejudice any of the parties, as would be the case, if the lease were surrendered prior to the final award of the Court.

We believe that nothing but the desire of the Court to carry out the wishes of the parties —which desire was expressed yesterday by Mr. O’Brien in the strongest terms on behalf of himself and colleague—would have enabled so satisfactory an ending to promise itself to circumstances so involved. The importance of the favorable turn to the Pouawa case is of inestimable value to the district ; it being the key to unlock all the Coast lands, as far as East Cape.