WEST COAST RESERVES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81849, 21 September 1906, Page 3

WEST COAST RESERVES.

HENI TE RAU'S COMPLAINTS. THE PUBLIC TRUSTEE UPHELD Judge H. G. Seth Smith, of the Native Land Court, who was appointed a Commissioner to enquire into th' complaints made by Mrs Heni tc Rau against the Public Trustee -n connection with the administration of land vested in him by the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act, has reported to the Government. His findings were presented to Parliament on Tuesday. The Commissioner is of opinion that the Public Trustee was notguilty of charging (as commission) greater amounts than he was allowed to charge by law, and that neither Heni te Rau nor Kuini wi Rangipupu has legitimate cause of complaint against his administration. With regard *o Heni te Rau's cla:m thai she wa- d--barred from administering her estate, although she was thoroughly capab e of doing so, the Commissioner is • f opinion it would not be advisable to make any such personal distinction in favor of a successor, so long as the reserves remained vested in the Trustee. The same remark applies with regard to Mrs Thompson. The Commissioner find-; that the present method of assessing the land tax inflicts injury on native interest ed in the reserves, and hu recommends that Parliament be rousted to make the necessary provision to re lieve natives from payment of land tax where their individual intere-ts ; n the reserves are of less value than the exemption laid down in the Land and Income Tax Act. . .