CAMBRIDGE FARMERS' CLUB.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 781, 3 July 1877, Page 2

CAMBRIDGE FARMERS' CLUB.

Tuesday, June 2G.

We continue to-day the essay of Major Wilson ori .the draft of the new Native Lands Bill, and will conclude ifc in our next". MORT&AGK3. Ir would appear from G8 aud following sections that the laud may be mortgage.]. That natives should be permitted to mortgage their land is much to b.i deplored. That permission opens up a channel for transactions, that are repre* i hensible, if not actually dishouest, and grasping land-jobbers., who may not be poseessed of—shall wo write—honorable feelings', will not scruple to entrap the nativos into accepting money upon mortgage, carrying the system to such an extent that the Maoris will not be able to redeem ; and although their land will not be absolutely lost —seeing they have possibly had value for it—yet it will have passed from them in a manner not anticipated by them, although the resu.'t was well known to the crafty money, lender, and mortification with its attendant dissatisfactiou must follow on nil such liansactious. It may not be one case, hut many, that will result imiliis'Wis-, and the influence for evil that-the chagrin may conjuie up may rcsulir.in very grave oonsequences to the country. Facility in the way of borrowings-is often a source of evil to the European, and is fraught with dangerAto the Maori, win cannot like the other, lo k. into the,future and p'au the ways and means of repayment. He will squander his money—as he thinks—so easily acquired, put'ing the day of p lymenfc out of mind, and in the end the land goes to his beguiler. W»s it not to lh-»t end the nnncy was loaned ? APPEALS.. Section 77 respecting appeals en* c ts 1 That it shall be lawiul for any native who foels himself aggrieved by the decision of the Court in any case under tbis Ant o- for the Governor to apply for a rehearing provided tha application be made within three months after such decision is given.' That natives who aro aggrieved,and they may be justly so, should have a rehearing is only fair, but that the case may be kept open for months or years—for it often amounts to that—not onlj implies an injustice to negotiators of purchase or leass, but it is no less an imposition on the rightful owners nine, ten, or all of whom wera deemed to have been owners at the original investigation, and may be declared the owners after the rehearing. The last clause of this section is the oVjecti nable part. The thred months ia certainly an improvement upon the six months of the Act of 1873, but this time is more than sufficient to m?et the requirements of justice, which could with less injury to all the parties concerned, be reduced to days instead of months. Three days has been publicly suggested, and this time is enough ; but.it might be extended with advantage t > perhaps a week after the hearing of the case. Then all the parties thereto would be on or about the spot, and would know \ihut they had Lo look forward to, and might endeivour to iirrange that a rehearing would be unnecessary and yet substantial justice be done. As thG law now stands —and it would scarcely be in a more progressive state wader the •prppesed

with its throe months*- notice— groat inconvenience, to me a mild expression, is experienced by both races. It is not usual for na'ives of their own accord to bring their lands before a court, but they generally first apply to a- European e.thor to lease or purchase a certain btock, who may thereupon olosa with their ; offer. Hs then Bufteys the land, the fir«t expense being always; his, and makes advances to the natives, the claimants to S 6 ° ****** legion j and then the block w some time after, pdssiblv a year or more, brought before a court, and although there may not have been one dissentient voice, but all unanimous and in the opinion of the court, mbst satisfactory j.y e t the declared owners can " get no title, and cannot* therefore, give one until many months hare elapsed, and [it may be, some of their numbsr meanwhile may, have, died, importing another, element of difficulty into the speedy obtaining of title. The natives, too, become .scattered and cannot" be collected to sign the deed required. . Otjier troubles, too, are likely* to follow, as we huvo seen in similar oases, that, amongst others, of persons offering the natives a higher price ajad otherwise tampering with the first sale- All these annoyances have' the original negotiators, to Buffer, and the natives themselves are Buffered in no small degree • for" they, 6f course, can only oblaiu a certain-, proportion of the purcbuse money, a moiety being retained until s title is obtainod. All these trials of loss of time, patience and money, and even health itself, are to be endured, because the law will affoid facilities in these directions by granting six or evn three months for all appeal, when the ends of juftice would be satisfied by ns many days. This phase of the question has been commented upon at some length, but no apology is required when we -write to deprecate bo crying an evil. . INFANrs. It is proposed to legislate for those who arc in the eyes of the law deemed to be infants, all who. are under tbe age of twenty-one years. By section 79, «a native under t age of twenty-one years may, with the consent of the Court, dispose of his—or her, we presume—interest in land, howsoever acquired, by way of sale or lease, but not by way of mortgage,* and section 80 constitutes the Chief Judge the executor of all noceasary-deeds, and his signature is sufficient. Under the Act'of 1873, and the «Maori Real Estate Management .Act, 1867,' it was scarcely possible to move 'the machinery in the direction required, for either lease or purchase, and the simplicity of the Draft in this particular, is highly commendable. It has been argued that here, too, the Chief Judge is all important. So, for the matter of that is the trustee under tho Act named. The requirements of justice render it imperative that some less cumbrous way of dealing in the case of infants—who, yet in native law are no infants, but, in every way qualified to deal with iheir own—should be brought into force, aud should considerable discretionary powers be delegated to one man, and that to one who, by virtue of bis officj, is the best suited, and the most likely to deal justly by all parties, inasmuch as he has the history of the transaction brought prominently before him in a variety of ways, with the acquaintance of which ether person couM' not ■ e expected to be cognizant, we cannot see how this is to bo feared or to be avoided. There miy not yet be. cas.s in Waikato— And we write for the colony as a whole—but, at the Thames, and, doubtless, elsewhere there have bean some of extreme where purchasers have remaimd for years, and same aro ttill waiting for the law to give them a title to shares fairly purchased. KJISERVfB. In the passing of this Act, as in all the othcts, cara has becu t&ken that the natives do not denude themselves of U and thereby become paupers on tbe country. Proper reserves will be made, sufficient for their maintenance, and if, in any case, these reserves are sold, the proce-ds will bo oonverte.l into securities that will yield rtturns with' corresponding benefits to the reserves.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.

There are fourteen sections under the heading Miscellaneous Prmis ons. Some of these give considerable power to tie Chief Judge, and thiae powers have been strongly auimadverttd upon by the Cdoniil Press. The thief Judge has Urge po*e>s under the present Act of 1873, and still greater by the rules made unfertile Act, and y<fc that power has only, so far we have observed, been exerted in a bent ficial direction. Indeed, under mauy of the sections, the Act is almost unworkable,, they are so contraSometimes even the clauses iu ihe same section have I een contradictory of 'each othor, and did not the Chief Judge use much judgement in theae matters, the Aco nould often remain a .dead letter. .

Officials are not fond of abusing their power. Experience has shown that they err in the other direction, and are over cautious, Who ever heard of a Prime oi Native Minister committing himself The utterances of the Delphic Oracle were not, in their ambiguity, more liable to mi.-construction than t-orr.e of thtir deliveiauces. .Jn their actions, none are so apparently paradoxical as the nonresponsibility of a rasponeible official. Some Acts require greater latitude than others, and it would appear that the powers given to the Übief, Judf-e in the draft Ufore uh, are not extravagant, and that the resulting evils have beeu over estimated. COUNSEL ALLOWED. Section 107, allowing counsel to appear at the discreiion of the Lourt, appears to be open to grave objections, and, iuslead of an advance, is simply a retrogression. The Act of 1873 has been worked mostly without counsel, mu.-h to the satisfaction of all conce ned, more especially to that of tho natives. Where toutsel plead in the Native Land Courts, tie casts are p olonged indefinitely, and without biiugmg out the essential evidence iu the case mure lucidly than'would the Couit without them, and not nearly so t xp« ditiously. Under there circumstances, tho natives are so harrassed by what they consider interminable and irrelevant questioning, that they become unable to accord proper answers. The expenses, too, of carrying a case throngh the Court are greater than the majority of native land owneis can bear, for, although it may be said the European purchaser will pay, the result is a less price given to the native, for purchasers count all these costs before a price is named, and they arrange accordingly. We cannot too strongly deprecate "the carrying out of this clause, and trust it will cot become law. MAKHIED WOMEiS". With regard to married women-dispos-ing, their interest in land, Wsl fj n d there ia an improvement on the present Act, whore, to have a valid deed, it must likewise be executed by the husband while the proposed bill enacts that every deed, contract, or other document executed by a married woman shall have tho same force and effect as though she were a femrne sQ 7 e, which, in native casei is as it su y u;.' be. .Native women, although married, poE.sa.fs thoir lauds i n «acfc. their husbands-havin« no r ower over them, and if tfjsy die childless, their lauds

revert to their own immediate relations. \ Vfe hayo seen, in practice, the absurdity of the Old Act, where, when the husband was aslted to feign, a. ("eed, to give it legality, ihe wornm .hv* turned and asked what that d»g had to do with ber land. No mouey will induoa a native woman of rank to forgo her privilege in a matter which sbe . averi* is dearer to her than life—)ie»* land. It argued on the pai t of those who such a ctoire, vciy great ignorance of native custom, and contradicts the spirit of tbo Aot, which infills on the Court prooeed* ing in its investigation according to native; custom. (To lia concluded in our next.) •