LAND GIFTS VOID

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1059, 25 August 1930, Page 11

LAND GIFTS VOID

BENEFICIARIES CANNOT PROVE IDENTITY MAORIS’ WILL BEQUESTS Unusual features of the law of succession to Maori lands are disclosed in a judgment of the Native Land Court, on an application for probate of the will of Pomare Hetaraka, who was well-known as a candidate for the Western Maori seat on several occasions. rpHE testator, who died on October 2, * 1929, bequeathed certain substantial interests in native lands to a woman, Rihi Kakuere, and a child, Neva Pomare Hiriwa, the former also being named as trustee and administrator. The court, however, was not satisfied that the beneficiaries were Maoris and eliminated the gifts from the will. The application for probate by Rihi Kakuere was opposed by the next-of-kin, for whom Mr. Quar t ley appeared, who contended that the devisees were Europeans, not within the exception of section 137 of the Native Land Act, 1909. The judgment stated that Nera Pomare Hiriwa was a child of 11 years: She had not been adopted by the testator, and could have succeeded to him if the deceased had died intestate. No attempt was made to show the child was a native or not a European within the meaning of the Native Land Act. The only evidence seemed to point to the child’s being a European, and, therefore, no devise of interest in native land could be made to her. The court’s decision further stated that Rihi Kakuere, better known as Rihi Hiriwa, or Elizabeth Silva, had lived with the deceased, although sho was the wife of another man. She had declared that her mother was Louisa Dunean, a full Maori, and her father was David Kirkwood, a white man, but that she was brought up by a half-caste, Kitty Marshall. Her mother had told her of her relationship. Ruhi Kakuere had also asserted that her mother’s parents were Taha, a sister of of Waikato, and Takena, a Maori magistrate. Inquiries among the descendants and elders of Ngatimahuta, however, failed to disclose auy knowledge that Potautau had a sister named Taha. COULD NOT SPEAK MAORI It was remarkable, the court commented that Ruhi could not speak Maori, although she had been brought up by a half-caste, who had married a Maori. For the objectors. Hori a sou of David Kirkwood, and Riuhi Duncan had shown that the applicant was not his sister. Kahi Kaihau, whose age was 89, had said that William Duncan was not a Maori, but a "Mangumangu.” She thought that Duncan was a “Kaiwhakawa Maori,” but she had never heard of a negro being a “Kawhakawa Maori.” The judge added that he had endeavoured to obtain from departmental records some information concerning William Duncan, although he considered it was unlikely that a negro would be a “Kaiwhakawa Maori.”' though a half-caste negro or Maori might well be. In holding that, the devise of interests in native lands to Rihi Kokuere could not take effect, the judge said, he did so with great reluctance because it defeated to a great extent the testator’s desires to benefit the woman who appeared to have been the object of his natural bounty. Probate was granted to the applicant. for whom Mr. Temete and Mr. Sullivan appeared, as executrix.