AN EARLY LAND DEAL

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 302, 13 March 1928, Page 18

AN EARLY LAND DEAL

ECHO IN NATIVE COURT (From Our Own Correspondent.) KAIKOHE, Saturday. Judge Acheson to-day delivered a reserved judgment in the Native Land < ’ourt now sitting at Kaikohe in favour of the Maoris in the Te Ti Block. Waitangi, holding the block to be “dustomary” native lands and not ' surplus” lands as claimed by the Crown. This is the considered opinion of the court relating to the final transaction in a land deal between the i’hurch Missionary Society and the Maoris in 1539. Soon after the Church Missionary Society started operations in New Zealand, Archdeacon Henry Williams, on behalf of the Church Missionary Society, acquired from Te Kemara and the Ngati Rahiri hapu, a block of land, presumed to be about 700 acres, contained within certain definite and specific points. When British rule was established, the Church Missionary Society had the block surveyed, when the area was found to be almost double the amount agreed upon. The Crown refused to give a title to the full surveyed area on the grounds that an insufficiency of value had not been given, but cut nut the agreed amount, and issued a title accordingly. Archdeacon Williams thereupon returned the "surplus” lands back to Te kentara and the Ngati Rahiri hapu

by memorandum dated June 7, 1839, giving in detail a description of the boundaries of the area handed back to the natives, and these boundaries are shown on a plan prepared in 1866 and produced in evidence. The accuracy of the boundaries or the plan was not disputed by the Crown.

The judgment concludes: “The court is satisfied that the whole area of Te Ti, estimated at 702 acres, was given back by the Church Missionary Society to Te Kemara and the Ngati Rahiri hapu in June, 1839, and, b< #.ig satisfied that the re-entry into possession took place prior to the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, holds that at the time of the coming into force of the Treaty of Waitangi, the whole of the Te Ti Block was native land unalienated and that, as such, the right of Te Kemara and Ngati Rahiri thereto was confirmed by the terms of the Treaty, and could not be set aside later by a claim that the block was “surplus” lands.

The court accordingly makes an order on investigation of title as applied for by the heirs and successors of Te Kemara and the Ngati Rahiri hapu to cover the whole of the area not hereotfore investigated, and to be in favour of Te Kemara and the Ngati Rahiri hapu. The names for inclusion and the relative shares to be settied by the court at a later sitting. The case upon which this judgment was delivered shows to what an undue length of time the Native Land Courts take to complete their business. Documents are quoted in the judgment being tendered in evidence during 1890 in support of the claimants, 38 years ago.