An Important Meeting.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 524, 28 October 1890, Page 3

An Important Meeting.

THE LAND COMMISSION. A meeting was held at the Borough Chambers nn Saturday afternoon to take into consideration certain ru’es adopted by the Native Land Commission. Mr Murphy was voted to the chair, and by request Mr DeLautour addressed the meeting concerning the object in view. The position, so far as they were concerned, was simple enough. A Commission was in existence which offered some opportunity of completing titles in certain cnees, but under rules that were almost, unworkable, and subject to th* imposition of fees which, though reduced slightly, were still very exccs-ive. It was known that the Acting Premier and Sir Frederick Whitaker were now attending to •he administra'ive part of the Government in Wellington, and we were also told that the C' mmissioners were going to sit in this district again within a short period ; they knew th’it the extended time during which persons interested could bring their titles before the Commission Court was running away very fast, and directly all persons whose titles are not complete would have to bring their application before this Court, even if they are rit her scepfical themselves as to the relief they would get; they would be driven in self-defence, even if they did not want to do so, to bring their cases before the Court, and directly they did so they would have to comply with the rules and pay the fees. He did not know why the Ccmmissioners had framed rules so stringent and so entirely different to those that guided the Native Land Court. For instance, take the giving of notice. An applicant had to give notice to every native personally or the successors or heirs of any person who may be in any way interested, and the applicant was not absolved from personal service unless he was able to show in the most clear way that service was impossible, and, to comply with the ru’es, he must also incur a very expensive republication. There were other points in the rules which were severe upon applicants, such as the multiplicity of applications necessary in some cases. There were many gentlemen in this district who had moderately-sized properties, and each one, owing to some mere chance, bad been carved up so that half-a-dozen separate Gewifioates of title were required, and in bringing these before the Commission Court the full had to be paid on each. This ruls acted in such a way that a man owning 3000 nr 4000 acres under fi x or seven certificates had to pay six or seven times as much in fees as another person would have to pav on making application in regard to 30,000 acres under the one certificate of title. Speaking without a knowledge of the cost of advertising the most moderate guess he could conceive in regard to the f-*ps was nearly £5O. Tak* then the case he was putting to them, which was hy no m»ans an uncommon one, and multiply th* fres by six and they would find the cost of f-ea alone, without taking counsel into consideration, to amount to £3OO. It had been considered that this meeting should be held, this district being principally affected, and steps taken to represent the matter properly to Government in the hope that sem* modification of the rules might be secured and help thus afforded, The power seemed to have been given last Fession so that the Government cnpld modify and amend the regulations as they saw fit. There was nn reason whatever why they should nttt. put them on all fours with the rule* that had guided the Native Land Court for years, while a modification would be an enormous b-nefit.. He thought a committee uhoud be selected to go into the ma’ter and that they shoild appoint a secretary to correspond with the Minister on behalf of the large number nf persons interested, and try and get some re’inf before all the app'ications hid to be deposited. He considered there was fair ground for making the fees as small as possible. Iwas Impossible for any person to say that the certificates that were tn be obtained were of very great bene fit.. Anyone who had follhwed un the subject would know that two of the ab’est lawyers in the colony did not view the thing in the same way. As the certificates wnuld have to be validated it was extremely improbable if that opinion would stand before the Court • f Appeal, yet a person was driven by force to make the application, or keep out at bis peril. In the long run a person might find, by one of the extraordinary decisions of the Court cf Appeal, that, he would be in exactly the &ame position as he was before the application was made, with the exception that above his lawyer’s charges he would be loaded wi’h expenses averaging £5O on each application. He did not wish to say that these certificates were valueless, but bearing in mind decisions that had been given it was impossible to say whether the certificates would be of permanent value. They should therefore grudge the expense, and save the district having thousands of pounds taken from it. Mr Bright spoke in favor of Mr DeLautour’s suggestion, and after discussion it was resolved, on the motion qf Mr Rose, seconded by Mr Mills, that Messrs Barker, Bright, Townley, Shelton, Beeves and Seymour be a committee, with power to add to their number, to communicate with the Government wi'h a view of getting a modification of the rules of the Commission Court. Mr DeLautour was asked to act, but on account of his professional capacity deemed it better not to do so, though he would be willing to give any assistance and advice gratis.