EAST COAST LAND TITLES GREATLY IMPROVED

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 24

EAST COAST LAND TITLES GREATLY IMPROVED The Northern Waiapu consolidation scheme can soon be realised. Full agreement was reached during a sitting held at Te Araroa last March, when the whole scheme, comprising over 100,000 acres, was placed before the people by Judge Norman Smith of the Tairawhiti Maori Land Court. Consolidation of Maori land interests was a major portion of Sir Apirana's plan for the Maori people. He took a great personal interest in the Northern Waiapu scheme which was started before the war but interrupted then because of lack of staff. Consolidation is not aimed at settling the individual owners but at identifying for each family group an area of land proportionate to its aggregated interests, over which it could exercise control. Completion of the Northern Waiapu consolidation scheme may produce drastic changes in the outlook of Maori owners. It may ultimately help to increase farm production. The Tikitiki school children, sitting on the Ministerial benches are given a lecture by the Prime Minister on parliamentary procedure. (N.P.S. Photo.)