A NEW CIRCUMLOCUTION OFFICE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 460, 29 May 1890, Page 2

A NEW CIRCUMLOCUTION OFFICE.

The above article points out only one phase of the Commission work, and the general subject yet requires dealing with. Any faith which may have lingered in the minds of those who thought they saw in the appointment of a special Commission a real remedy for the disastrous entanglement of the Native Land laws must by this time have vanished completely. The Commission is altogether too cumbersome and too inadequate for its purpose.

We have every faith in the gentlemen who compose the Commission, but none whatever in the machinery by which they expect to carry out their duties. If the persons who traded in native land, and who expect to get relief, were a band of swindlers and robbers, the more strict the machinery is made the better, but if it is such people that are to be relieved then the Legislation had no business to take them into consideration, except indeed to visit them with the punishment they would richly deserve. If, on the other hand, the persons who have dealt in native lands and who are to be assisted are those who, relying on the good faith of Governments, have become almost hopelessly entangled in a set of laws which are a disgrace to any civilized community, then we say that the Government of the country should lend every assistance to discover what is right and just, and to deal out equity and justice accordingly, and at as small a cost to the country as possible. To effect this would not be so very difficult, and we need point to no better example than the Poututu Commission to show what may be done in that direction, and that at a very trifling cost. The new Commission, whether from the fault of the Government or the Commissioners themselves, has resolved itself into a gigantic circumlocution office to satisfactorily go through which would require a very long purse. We were the first to draw attention to the absurdly high fees that had been laid down by the Commissioners. Our remarks have been copied into various other newspapers, with the result that some concessions have been made, but insufficient to make any material alteration in the chances of the Commission being useful. Not only the fees, but the rules themselves, require some change if the Commission is not going to be a mighty farce. The rules are so framed that no single step can be taken without involving both applicants and objectors in heavy expensei Nothing can ba dene outside the Gauri without protea*

sional assistance, and the President’s ruling on Tuesday makes it equally necessary inside the Court, for it is scarcely probable that a native will pit himself against a professional gentleman. That the Commissioners should so bind themselves with formalities is a great pity, and detracts greatly from the usefulness which it was expected would result by the Act expressly providing that the Commissioners should not be bound by legal rules of evidence or legal precedents. The appointment of a Supreme Court Judge as a Commissioner might be expected to lead to the introduc-

tion of Supreme Court precedents, and indeed there is no other Court in the colony which would require the formalities which the Commissioners by their rules require, and not even the Supreme Court would think of heaping up the fees as is done in the Native Commission Court. Never was a better illustration given of how utterly helpless any Court could be made than that furnished by the application made to the Commissioners by Mr H. J. Finn, and which the Commissioners refused to grant. Here was a transaction which was perfectly fair and aboveboard, a Trust Commissioner had certified to the lona fides of it, and a Native Land Court Judge had approved of it as fair and just. But owing to technicalities furnished by a bad set of laws, the person who purchased could not get his title because a single owner had not signed the deed. Under these circumstances a way is sought out of the difficulty by issuing a certificate of title to

the natives who had sold, in the expectation that the deeds could be registered against it. Then the Registrar refuses to register the deeds, because according to a decision subsequently given by the Supreme Court the deeds cannot be registered under the Land Transfer Act, as they are dated before the Land Transfer title is granted. There is no dispute as to the transaction ; everything depends on technicalities, and Mr Finn was justified in thinking that under the circumstances his clients should not be put to the expense of starting again from the commencement and going through all the work that various Commissioners and Judges had already done without objection. But, no; the Commissioners required the same application to be made, the same numerous deeds and documents to be copied, the same notices to be served on individuals, the same advertising to be done, and the same expense to be gone to as if the block were a large and valuable one and the transaction was disputed by the natives. It is simply ridiculous that a perfectly clear transaction requiring only to be rid of the technicalities of bad legislation should be made the object of an useless and expensive enquiry. Dead failure is stamped on the brow of the Commission before even It has properly entered on its duties.