NATIVE LAND COURT AT OTOROHANGA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2399, 24 November 1887, Page 2

NATIVE LAND COURT AT OTOROHANGA.

Dissatisfaction of the Natives. (liV TELEGRAPH.— OWN UOKUESI’ONDEXT.) Oi’drohanga, Tuesday. The Court resumed here to-day to receive the lists nf names fur the Rohe Potae. .Values ar c being submitted, and the work nf objecting nr agreeing to their admission is going on. Tammi and other objectors are willing to let the work go on in so far as adjudication of the Rohe I’otae is concerned, but it is quite likely ho will object to the subdivsinn work until some understanding is come to regarding the Hurakia-Maraeroa BlockIt is on the cards, however, that should any natives representing hapns request the Court to individualise their till it will be granted. The natives are very sore still over the Taupo adjudictaion, owing to the peculiar working of the Native Land Court. The first application they sent in months ago was informal, as the final judgement had not been given. It was delivered by the Chief Judge lasi September, and he then noticed the objectors to send in their applications fora rehearing with their grounds of objection. This is now being prepared and tracings got ready to submit with the applications, but though this is being done there is no certainty of its being granted, and it may yet be necus sary to petition Parliament in the matter. It is absurd to expect natives to understand the circumlocution and red t-'oism of olticialdom, and they fail to understand why the tirst application could not be allowed to stand over till after the final judgment, and then be taken without having to go over the same ground again. No intimation as to whether the application would be entertained has been given to them, and this state of uncertainty is very annoying to them. A gross injustice is said to have been perpetrated, and they cannot understand the delay in enquiring into it. .Some of them, in conversation with me, stated that they would stop any surveyors going to work there on behalf nf the Government, or those to whom the land has been awarded. One man said that they were determined to resort to force to asseft their claim, thus compelling the Govern ment to intervene. They do not understand that the sub-divi-sion of tlie Rohe I’otac cannot affect their claim to the land at Taupo or el-ewhere, and will hold back to try to make their objections a lever to compel a rehearing of the case. It is not certain at present how long the Court will sit here, the probability is that when the lists of names are completed another adjournment will take place, and should applications for subdivisions be made which would be worth going to work upon, business will be resumed in January. At present there is an amount of uncertainty in the whole affair, and a great deal of dissatisfaction was expressed at the gazetting of Cambridge as the place for hearing the business connected with the land taken for the railway, and the result is that when the case comes on at Cambridge it will be adjourned to this place. The report that the prospectors have been threatened with death by being “ eul down like pigs” by the Tiihua natives is not true,'so Wahr.iiui, who is my authority, says. They were stqppetl pending communication with him, and he says they had no permit from him, but ho sent a communication to the Tuhua natives, and the result is that the two men have been furnished with a guide, and are now at work. Since writing the above, I saw Wahauui again after the 5 o’clock adjournment of the Court, and he said in reference to the reported threat to kill the surveyors at Mura kin to take possession of their instruments that it is true such a threat had been made, but he will send a messenger to tli.it district to-morrow, advising the natives to abstain from aiyy violence, but if the surveyors are' encroaching on the Mauiapoto boundary to simply turn them hack. It appears that they are reported to have encroached from the Ngatitnwharetoa land on to what the Maniapotos claim to be their boundary in the disputed block.