The Maori Mana.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3315, 6 August 1879, Page 2

The Maori Mana.

This is what an ex«hug«iayial>««t the Maori Maoa:—" The Mana reminds us of the traditional right claimed MMMtuaee by tenants in Ir«W over ts»; farms occupied br them on lease. Among the many dark trioki played by the land ■harkt, iiioi the leui-dMfMttf their ■etting up iham claimants to certain coveted blocks so at to frighten the real owners into MWcftiDg their!: hard terms, or the option of a long court suit. There we numerous basts upon which a Maori title e«nb^b«il», as, for example, asserted personal rights from all sorts of asserted relationship ; asserted gifts fro* eUeb long dead; asserted occupation or conquest; asserted marriage dowries or asserted gifts for allied aid in helpingthe Wbe ef the reputed owners to revenge themselrea on some other tribe at some remote date, perhaps tenior u lwrif. ff*»»ti<xi. pan. The shittng of boundaries 11 another good pretext, but these are only a few of the many grounds on wfcfch V ati*¥ianft t itlet are based and disputed. Perhaps too most complex of all titles, however, is the Mana. It is the right universally recognised by all natifea in the chief jot a tribe to prohibit the. aleniajtion of law beloacing 'to, fai»y member of" the tifioeTTnE Mana, from its vague and sentiateatal character, is a great card among maanfae*: turers of bogus pleimi to land for bpMtU tion's sake; as already dewribtd, bSSSm genuine, is as serious to overlook it aa»e> know to our colt, as it would be to tefm» salt from an Arab. .