The Telephone. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 261, 15 October 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE POVERTY BAY STANDARD. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15.

So the Tologa Bay land Court is adjourned again. It will not sit on the 6th of November as was fondly anticipated. What has Tologa Bay done that it should be treated thus ? Wairoa has its Land court, Opotiki its Land court, Hastings its court, almost whenever it requires one. Cambridge until lately for months has been in a chronic state of having the surrounding land titles investigated, but Tologa Bay, poor Tologa Bay! it has still to wear sack-cloth and ashes for its past misdeeds. Why should Tologa be made the scapegoat of the whole of the East Coast ? We really do not know who is to blame this time. We rather wish we did. It is a scandalous shame, that time after time adjournments should be made, totally regardless of the public convenience. Europeans and Natives are alike put to great expense by these endless delays. The last adjournment took place in order to have tested certain legal questions raised with reference to the power of the Court to subdivide lands held under memorial of ownership and certificate of title. The questions upon which the opinion of the Supreme Court was sought were drawn up by legal gentlemen engaged in the cases before His Honor Judge Brookfield. When the case came before the Supreme Court, for argument, His Honor Judge Richmond reversed to some extent the order in which the questions had been put, and gave a decision, that no one, so far as we are aware of, understands, except we presume the learned judge himself. The plain matter of fact question is this; If any owners of land, held under Memorial of Ownership, or what is one and the same thing, a certificate of title signs a deed purporting to transfer for ever for proper consideration his interest in such land, can the European or other person obtaining such transfer have his interest defined and allocated to him by an order of the Native Land Court? We do not use the word “ acquire,” employed in the Native land Acts, because from a legal point of view its meaning appears to be hedged round with uncertainty. We assume the question we put cannot, unfortunately, be answered in the affirmative : Until all possible doubt upon the subject is removed, and Parliament passes a law, free from the perpetual maze that enshrouds the legislation of Native Lands, and gives to the European who fairly purchases a share, the legal power of having that interest defined, the settlement of the country is retarded, and the East Coast especially will be a confirmed sufferer. We published the other day a synopsis of the proposed Native Land Act to be brought forward by the Government. We assure the Hon. Mr. Ballance, that he has got fairly on the right track in initiation that measure. If the late period at which the Session has now arrived precludes the possibility of a general measure of reform in the Native Land laws, the Government will confer a vast amount of good, if they do no more, than pass at once a short Bill, that will enable bona fide transactions, equitably undertaken by Europeans and Natives, to be carried out and legally ratified in the Native Land Courts of the Colony. The Native Minister who does that, shall be a benefactor to the Colony, a benefactor alike to the European and Maori race. He will break down the bulwarks of fraud that the present Native Land laws afford to members of either race dishonestly inclined, and in the affections of the long suffering settlers of the East Coast, the memory of such a Native Minister will secure an abiding place.