A.—No. 2.

NAME OF

EXPLANATORY NOTES. Section 15. There arc the same reasons for having Judges of this Court resident in their several districts as in the case of the Supreme Court. There is an additional reason in this case, where the Court has no written rule of law to guide it. Uniformity of decision in the same district will be better secured. Section 20. The practice of obliging Natives to employ licensed surveyors has been found inconvenient, and often unnecessarily expensive. Different surveyors have been employed by opposing claimants to survey the same block of land. The insecurity of payment on completion of his work is unsatisfactory to the surveyor, and he naturally makes an extra charge for such insecurity. Hardship has arisen from nonfulfilment of promises made by Europeans to take a lease of the land and pay expenses of survey out of rent, —such promises being the inducement to the Natives to have their land surveyed. A case of this sort became the subject of litigation at Auckland, and the original cost of survey with law expenses, amounting together to upwards of .€7OO, was made a charge upon the land. The intending lessee having failed to make good his promises, and the land remaining unlet, the interest of mortgage money has not been paid. Should the mortgagee resolve to sell in order to repay the principal and interest in arrear, the Native owners may see the land slip away from them by a process the justice of which they are not likely to acknowledge. The name of the principal Native owner in the case referred to is Ngakapa, of the tribe Ngati-Whanaunga. The land is situate oa the western shore of the Frith of the Thames. The obvious remedy is to let all surveys be made by officers of the Court. Nothing would do more to strengthen the influence of the Government than its direct intervention to introduce and to superintend a better system. Section 25. Natives are generally so intelligent and apt, that it is believed they would be found quite capable to conduct their own case after having had a little practice, aided by the intelligent direction of a Judge. If Natives are found to be competent to fill the office of Assessor, there is no reason why they should not be equally competent to act as advocates in the Court. They at least would be likely to know more of Maori law and custom than an English lawyer. It is believed that such a plan would work well, and render the Court popular among the Natives. Section 28. A register of names of all Native owners of land in the district, with name of his tribe and hapu, could without difficulty be compiled from information obtained and recorded by the Judge iv the regular course of his work. Section 30. The number ten has been retained on account of its having been sanctioned in other Acts. But there appears no objection to a wider limit. Indeed there is a practical advantage in a wider limit, as tending to diminish cost of subdivision, and in other respects it might sometimes be convenient. There is no time so proper for ascertaining once for all the qiu;ntum of interest of the several owners as the time of the original inquiry. The Natives are then assembled, are anxious to get their Crown grants or certificates of title, and are then willing to give information or to come to terms among themselves as to anything which may be necessary for that end. The soouer this point is settled the better, for the settlement of this point involves the settlement of all disputes as to the distribution of rent or the proceeds of a sale. Section 31. This provision is to prevent the very general practice with storekeepers, sellers of spirits, and others, of encouraging Natives to run into debt and then of making the debt a set-off on purchase of land. It would never do for the Court to be mixed up in such transactions. Section 33. The consent of all the owners to the subdivision of their land has been required because without such consent any order of the Court directing such

AND NATIVE RESERVES ACTS.

15

Native Owners. Hapus. Tribes. Proportionate Shares. Given under the hand of under the seal thereof Entered in book No. page . L.S., Kegistering Clerk. Chief Ju day of udge of the said Court and issue* 187 . Issued at * t* /~ii i