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20. The protection of the rights of the tribe through this considerate action on the part of the Government will cease by eflluxion of time in October next. 21. An action has been commenced by Major Kemp and other members of the Muaupoko Tribe in the Supreme Court of New Zealand against Warena te Hakeke (otherwise called Warena Hunia), in which the plaintiffs pray, inter alia, that the trust may be affirmed by the decree of that honourable Court ; that an inquiry may be had by reference to the Native Land Court as to who are the persons entitled under the original certificate of title; that Warena te Hakeke may be restrained by injunction from selling, transferring, or charging the said lands or any part thereof; that the certificate of title issued to Major Kemp and Warena Hunia may be declared void as against the plaintiffs and the other members of the Muaupoko Tribe in possession of the block at the time of the issue of the said certificate of title; and that Warena te Hakeke, who now claims to be the absolute owner, may be dismissed from the trusteeship. 22. Although your petitioner, Major Kemp, has used all diligence in prosecuting his suit, the action cannot be tried before the Wanganui sittings at the end of September or beginning of October next, and it may be delayed considerably beyond that date. 23. Under all these circumstances your petitioner and the people whom he represents have determined to approach your honourable House with a prayer for relief, for they are firmly persuaded that Parliament will not allow them to suffer through their ignorance of English laws and customs, or permit of their being stripped of their ancestral home simply because they failed to make their trustees execute a declaration of trust, as required by the Statute of Frauds, of which they had at the time no knowledge whatever, and as to the necessity for which they received no instruction or warning from the Court at the time the order for a certificate of title was made. The favourable reports made from time to time by the Native Affairs Committee, and the readiness with which the Government has extended its protecting hand, affords them an assurance that they will not approach your honourable House in vain. / 24. Your petitioner has already shown to the Committee of Native Affairs that, in agreeing to entrust their lands to the keeping of representative chiefs, the Muaupoko people were doing nothing unusual, and that, from a Maori point of view, it would never occur to them that they were conferring an absolute estate upon the persons so selected, and divesting themselves in law of their inheritance —of the land on which they were residing and upon which most of them were born. Your petitioner is prepared to show this again, if necessary, from the mouths of many credible witnesses ; and, having regard to past experience in this matter, whilst fully assured of the strength and justice of his case, he feels more confidence in coming to Parliament for relief than in trusting to the intricacies and uncertainties of the law-courts. Wherefore your petitioner humbly prays that your honourable House will pass a measure empowering the Native Land Court to inquire into the alleged trust, and, if satisfied on such inquiry that such trust exists, to ascertain by its ordinary methods who are the persons beneficially entitled, and in what shares or proportions. And your petitioner will for ever pray, &c. Meiha Keepa te Rangihiwinui.
WHAKAMAORITANGA. Xi te Tumuaki Honore me nga Mema o to Whare Runanga c noho huihui ana i roto i te Paremete. Ko te Pitiliana a Meiha Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (tetahi cm a ingoa ko Meiha Keepa) he Rangatira Maori no nga Takiwa o Whanganui me Manawatu. B whakaatu ana ;- — 1. I te 10 o nga ra o Aperira te tau, 1873, lea mania c te Kooti Whenua Maori he ota i raro i nga ritenga o " Te Ture Whenua Maori, 1865," me " Te Ture Whenua Maori, 1867," Ida whakaputaina he Tiwhikete ki a Meiha Keepa Te Rangihiwinui (ka huaina i raro ake nei ko Meiha Keepa) i raro i te tekiona 17 o " Te Ture Whenua Maori, 1867," mo tetahi poraka Whenua kei Horowhenua kei te Takiwa o Manawatu, kei roto i te Takiwa Porowini o Poneke, tona nui c 52,480 eka hira ake iti iho ranei, a, i taua ra ano ka mahia he ota i runga i nga ritenga o taua tekiona 17 o " Te Ture W Thenua Maori, 1867," Ida rehitatia ki roto ki taua Kooti nga ingoa 143 he tangata Maori enei no Niu Tireni a kia meinga no ratou taua whenua. Ko te whakataunga a taua Kooti iputa ai aua ota koia tenei, ko Muaupoko te iwi nona taua whenua, a, i meatia me niene katoa nga tangata o Muaupoko ki roto ki taua rarangi ingoa. Ite27 o Hune,
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