MOKAU ESTATE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 42, 11 August 1911, Page 6

MOKAU ESTATE.

MR. JOSHUA JONES' VIEWS. REPLY TO ACTI NG-PR LME MINISTER." •• MERE POLITICAL CLAP-TRAP." , The controversy regarding the Mokau - lands transaction is being steadily continued in the columns of the Wellington papers. The latest contributor is Mr. Johua Jones, tile' original lessee, who discussed some aspects of the subject in a letter published in Monday's Dominion. "Sir .lames Carroll in speaking at Christchiirch," writes Mr. Jones, "makes statements that are incorrect and misleading. He says that a Tory Government had confirmed my right and given me a 56 years' lease at a peppercorn rental. This is contrary to fact. What he calls the Tory Government did not confirm my lease. If it did it was a very praiseworthy act to perform. It saved tlio country immense sums of money that were being wasted in defence against the people whose friendship the colony at that time desired to acquire, and it opened up the King Country, which was acknowledged by Sir George Grey and Sir Harry Atkinson. The Acting-Prime Minister 'has missed his ; mark in endeavoring to make capital out of this event. He was probably referring to the Local and Personal Act No. 7 of 1888, passed by the Atkinson Ministry, and which merely rectified what had been improperly done by certain Government officials. As set out in the report upon which the statute was founded the dealings were confirmed by letters nnd telegrams of a Liberal Government in 1878-0, and by a statute with special provisions by another Lib-* eral Government in 1885 . The matter' 1 of rentals, however, was no.t enquired into by any of them. The Trust Commissioners dealt with that question long after the statutes had been passed. As to peppercorns I failed to see even one of them in 1870, when not a soul with a copper would venture into this territory, guarded as it was against the natives with armed constabulary. When tfie open enquiry which the Government has hitherto refused shall become set up I will undertake to show that the peppe: 1 corn story of Sir J. Carroll's is mere clap-trap for political purposes, and that the native owners from 1876 onwards have received more than anyone else would have agreed to give them, and what was a very fair thing at that. "In referring to the recent dcalingß with the property Sir James Carroll says the value of the leasehold is greater than the value of the freehold.' I shall not discuss the merits of such a silly assertion, but would point out that a Royal Commission at the instigation of Dr. Findlay was set up and reported the leasehold title to be illegal and therefore valueless; but now when the Government by Order-in-Council has granted, illegally, I maintain, the right to purchase the freehold by Messrs Findlav and Dalziell's client, the lease that had no locus standi becomes then more valuable than the freehold. If Sir James implies the intrinsic value he is simply endeavoring to throw dust in the eyes of people who know better.

"Sir James Carroll says the negotiations for purehase were 'stifled.' How, it may be asked, could this happen while the Crown held the pre-emptive right as well as the purchase in hand and could have proclaimed the land at any moment? The Acting-Prime Minister and his chief may yet be called upon to explain why the arrangements made with me by the Prime Minister and himself, both verbally and in writing, were not can ied out, but waived in favor of Messrs Findlay and Dalziell's client. By what consideration were the Ministers p-rompted in advising his Excellency to sign an Order-in-Council authorising the sale and purchase of the property at a peppercorn rental under the pretext that it was in the public interests, when as a matter of fact it was for the benefit of the land ring who had no claim on the State!"