Gr. —6d

1929. NEW ZEALAND.

THE NATIVE LAND AMENDMENT AND NATIVE LAND CLAIMS ADJUSTMENT ACT, 1926. REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION ON PETITION No. 222 OF 1926, OF RUTU HERE MOKENA, RELATIVE TO KAIPIHA BLOCK.

Presented to Parliament in pursuance of the Provisions of Section 35 of the Native Land Amendment and Native Land Claims Adjustment Act, 1926.

Native Department, Wellington, 26th September, 1929. Petition No. 222 of 1926. —Kaipiha Block. Pursuant to section 35 of the Native Land Amendment and Native Land Claims Adjustment Act, 1926, I herewith transmit the report of the Native Land Court upon the allegations contained in the above-mentioned petition. In view of that report I have no recommendation to make. R. N. Jones, Chief Judge. The Hon. the Native Minister, Wellington.

In the Native Land Court of New Zealand, Waikato-Maniapoto District. Te Kuiti, 3rd October, 1928. The Chief Judge, Native Land Court, Wellington. Kaipiha Block. —Reference by you dated 20th October, 1926, in terms of section 35/1926 for inquiry and report into allegations in petition No. 222 of 1926 by Rutu Here Mokena. I made inquiry, as directed, at Te Kuiti on the Bth, 9th, 10th, and 15th June, 1927, and on the 28th kSeptember, 1928. Mr. Withers appeared for petitioner, Rutu Here Mokena, and George Turner (Hori Tana) for the Turner family, the present owners of the land. The delay in completion has been that of the parties themselves. It is not disputed that Here Mokena, the father of Rutu Here Mokena, was a brother of Ripeka Tangi, mother of the Tana family. Had the take under which the land was awarded on investigation been ancestral or otherwise under strict right according to Native custom there would no doubt be force in petitioner's contention that her father should have been included in the title, but, on the evidence as to occupation, certainly not to anything like the half of the land she claims. But there is no such take. These people are Ngatipou, of Lower Waikato, whose ancestral land extends, as far as my knowledge goes, from Whangape to about Tuakau. No satisfactory explanation has been given of their coming to the neighbourhood of Pirongia and settling in Ngati-Hikairo and NgatiNgawaero territory.