MAORI PROPERTY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3325, 1 November 1919, Page 6

MAORI PROPERTY.

ADOPTEI) CHILDREN ’s RIGHTS.

N 0 RACIAL BAR TO SUCCESSION.

_LON:‘DON, July 23. ' Theilaw lords '-of the Judieial‘Conl- - of the Privy ‘Council finally disposed of ‘the question whether a white 'child legally adopted by a Maori (or as the legal phraseology" goes, “an aboriginal native of New Zealand”) possesses a. right of succession in lands the titles to which are subject to ‘the: jurisdiction of the ‘Native Lnad Court.‘ Lords Buckmaster, Atkinso,nt and Phillimore have decidéd that the white child adopted in aa.ccordanee with the provisi-ens ofthe Adoption’ of Children’s Act, 1895, is entitled to the same rights ;iIS children with Maori blood in their veins, and from theirldecision there is no appeal, the Privy Council being the final arbiter in law cases emanating from His :Majest.y’s Dominions Overseas.

The ease presented to their lordships 7 ‘was "briefly this: Erueti and Mariana Arani, husband and wife, both aboriginal natives of New Zealand, adopted two Maori children, and; afterwards an European ‘child-‘—_Matilda‘ Lindsay, to wit. In respect to the latter they further obtained an order of adoption unA der the Adoption of ‘Children’s Act, 1895. The husband died in 1807, and the Public Trustee on obtaining probate of his will, applied to the Native {Land Court for an ol'der of succession in favour of all the children. That Court decided that a Maori could not: adopt and register any child unless itil had Maori blood in its veins, and con- 1 ‘sequently that only the two" uadoptedl Maori children were entitled to Succeed to the property. On appeal the Native Appellant Court revisedpthat decision, ' and held ‘that as Matilda. Lindsay~‘3hadl been adopted under the Adoption of! Children Act, 1895, she had a right to .; share on equal terms. with the others. 1 . Lord Phillimore. in delivering the judgment of the ‘Committee, said a »Maori had ‘the same rights of availing himself of the Adoption of Children ‘Act as a person of European descent. The right of the Maori to adopt ac-I cording‘ to his own custom was not interfered with by giving him a further right to adopt in "the for rand under the conditions proirided by the Act. ‘ For the rest, his Lordship intimated that the co-mmittee concurred in the views of the Native Appellate Col'u’C,! and the appeal (Arani V. the Public ‘ Trustee of New Zealand and'M'-atilda Lindsay and anot-her) would be dismissed with Eests. i