The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Thursday, July 11, 1889. DEPARTMENTAL TRICKS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 323, 11 July 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Thursday, July 11, 1889. DEPARTMENTAL TRICKS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

We daresay our readers will hardly credit us if we tell them that of the 850 acres of land on which this township stands, at least no have never been paid for. And this very dishonest state of things has existed for the last 19 years without rectification. The story is shortly this. In 1870 the Government purchased 740 acres of land, being the piece contained in the Crown Grant of the town of Gisborne, but when they cut up their purchase they annexed, (we don’t like to call it anything else), tto acres, and so with a purchase and deed of conveyance of 740 acres they cut up and sold 850 acres. The portion of land in question extends from the Waikanae to the junction of Lytton Road with the Taruheru River, and includes the land on which Mr Reynolds' house stands. We are not aware if this be a slander of Mr Reynolds' title I we certainly don’t intend it as such, nor, so far as we know, is anyone’s title menaced, as the Government have merely been asked to pay for the land ; and, on the petition of the late Riperata Kahutia, in 1884, the Committee for Native Affairs did award that she should be paid, and the Government did promise to pay her, but from that day to this, on some pretence, they have always avoided payment. We do not think that Ministers are acting dishonestly ; we think that some of their understrappers or under-secre-taries are. But we do think that the Government is very blameable for so long allowing a matter of this kind to remain unsettled. It seems very unsafe to the settlers who purchased the land ; and very dishonest in the Government to have taken it and sold it, spent the money, and never to have paid for it. The pretext made by the Under-Secre-tary of Crown Lands for withholding payment, even after the award of Parliament, is, we are informed, that all the parties interested have not signed a release.

We are reliably informed that all the parties interested, namely the survivors in 1884 when the contract for payment was made, have, with the exception of one, viz. the Honorable Mokena Kohere, signed a release, and full authority to the petitioner to receive the compensation, and, more than that, have been paid by a private gentleman of this town, on the faith of the award, and subsequent promise by Government, who, to this day, to the shame of the Ministry be it said, lies out of the money paid by him for the land mentioned, Again we say we do not think Ministers have done this designedly, but we do blame them, that is the Native Minister and the Minister for Crown Lands, for drifting into this position, and allowing themselves to passively glide under the hands of their Undersecretaries, into such a condition of things. The original town grantees were joint tenants ; for the land in question there are really no grantees, as the land was never through the Court; but the original grant having been amended, we presume it would be contended those grantees are the owners. Now they were, as is well known, joint tenants, so that their survivors in 1884 would of course be owners, and entitled to compensation, and they or their assignee ought to be paid. If that be not the position, then there are no owners sf all: a view which we think is the correct one, for the emendation of a grant of 740 acres, so as to annex no acres is so preposterous, and so absurdly outside the one per cent, limit of error, that we don't think on a writ of scire facias it would hold water one minute, and so the land rnust be put through the Court to ascertain the owners, from whom It must then be purchased by Government to keep faith with the European vendees now on the land.

A Crown Grant of 740 acres might fairly have been emended to 750 acres, but not to 850 acreg, and even then any emendation, by including a greater acreage, would necessitate the imme; diate payment for such annexation. But who can possibly justify the silent taking of tip acres of land without paying a copper for it ? The sooner Ministers see that, their Under-Secretaries are instructed in the first principles of honesty, the safer the position of such Ministers will become,