The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. SATURDAY, NOV. 17, 1888.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2552, 17 November 1888, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

SATURDAY, NOV. 17, 1888.

Equal and exact justicc to all men. Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political.

It was recently announced that Mr Barton, a prominent. Wellington lawyer, lias been appointed Judge in the Native Land Court, and is to proceed at once to a district in the north of Auckland. It is not very long since that a sudden demonstration of economy was displayed by the Native Minister and his factotum, the shrewd Under-Secre-tary of the Native Office. At that time a pretence was made of cutting down the expenditure of the Native Land Court Department l>y dispensing with the serTices of some of the oldest and most capable judges. The salaries and allowances of the remaining judges and court officers were classi-

tied on a lower scale, and somewhat loud profession was niade of, the intention to transfer a considerable portion of the work of the court to Resident Magistrates, who were for that purpose to he styled Recorders. All these things were to save the country large sums of money ; we cannot venture to say how much, and it was all to terminate in thy happy despatch of the Native Office itself. The member for Waipa was

vehement, before his election, in his deletmiuation to plunge his knife, into the vitals of the obnoxious Department. But, unfortunately that office still lives and seems to be rearing its head with . renewed vigour, the creation of Recorders

and the duties intended to have tieen imposed on thorn collapsed and was repealed by late legislation, and additional judges, untried in the special feature? of native, procedure, have been appointed to replace the experienced ones previously retired. The state of things in regard to the natives is very unsatisfactory. What Mr Mitchelson is pleased to dignify with the name of a native policy lias no solidity about it; its conception is vague and shadowy in the extreme. The Minister pulls down what another before him had been endeavouring to build up ; and there is an admixture of old and new material that gives the structure proposed to be set up, a very ricketty aspect that no one can trust. With the perpetual patching and repatching in native affairs that goes on with every change of Government; all the legislation and legislative experiments constantly being made in regard to the administration of their lands, the native mind is kept in a continual state of disquietude and worry. They are dissatisfied, in fact more dissatisfied than ever, with the state of the present law and the Native Land Courts. Past and bitter experience has brought them much knowledge in respect to the position they occupy, and has enlightened their understanding on subjects of essential importance to their own interests as a race. During the past two or three years their confidence in the Native Land Court has not been improved by the treatment meted out to them in the manipulation of some important blocks of couutry. They do not look upon " the Chief Judge, Mr McDonald with the reliance on his judgments which should be inspired by his office, owing principally to his lack of intimate acquaintance with Maori customs. The Native Land Court procedure in the case of applications for, and mode of carrying out, rehearings is a source of very great discontent- amongst large sections of the natives. The Chief Judge, in whom they repose no confidence, has absolute power in matters that have a vastly important bearing on great tribal interests, and his decisions have in some not able instance.-! been based on grounds that are utterly incomprehensible to the natives and not consistent with their ancient usages. There can never be any finality, except by the total extinction of the race, to the existence of the Native Land Court and its costly system, so long as its mode of procedure is unable to satisfy the claimants for investigations of titles and tribal subdivisions without giving cause for constantly recurrant re-hearings. There is absolute necessity for a radical reform in the present cumbersome, irritating and expensive system, by which in place of re-hearings, all cases of disputed ownership should be referred to the Supreme Court for adjudication on the evidence already taken before the Native Land Court Judge, But we have been told by gentlemen of large experience and thoroughly versed in Maori questions, and who have the best opportunities of knowing the opinions and feelings of the intelligent members of the native people, that j a very great simplification of the whole machinery is feasible, and would be far more preferable to the natives than the system they have to submit to at present. There is a good deal more than is generally conceded in the demands of Sydney Taiwhanga for Maori self-government, and his influence, with the native race is not contemptible. The natives generally seek to have larger and more independent powers in the administration or manipulation of their lands. They would like to see the Native Land Court abolished altogether, and all questions of boundaries relegated to legally constituted committees of their own selection and race. In fixing these boundaries they would be guided by the Government surveys and the maps of the Survey Department, in which the lines would be marked when they were agreed amongst themselves. Then, and not till then, would they come to the Chief Surveyor, Resident Magistrate, or other proper Government officer, to record and register the boundaries agreed upon and described on the maps. Individualisation and granting of orders of succession could be afforded on the lines of Mr Ballance's Act. To abolish the Native Land Courts would not only relieve the colony of an obsolete and costly piece of machinery, but would also remove from the native people a source of great evil to them, inasmuch as • whereverthe Courtsare held thelocal Maori population becomes unsettled, is improvished and grossly demoralised. They give themselves up to idleness and vice, neglect their cultivations and all kinds of useful and necessary labour, and are ever at their wits' end to procure food to subsist upon.