The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday. Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, October 30, 1890. NATIVE LAND MATTERS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 525, 30 October 1890, Page 2

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

Thursday, October 30, 1890. NATIVE LAND MATTERS.

150 Just and fear not; Let ail the ends thou aira’st at be thy oountry‘B, Thy God'e, and truth's.

The above subject threatens to remain a prominent one in the minds of the people of this district for many weary years to come. The end of the trouble seems as far off as ever, though schemes ’to better things have been proposed in great number. One man will have all kinds of arbitrary restrictions, another

will prefer committees and such like weak human institutions, while some will tickle the ears of taxpayers by telling them that there should be absolute free trade, without any safeguard against ail the fraud and deceit that would be perpetrated under that high-sounding name But the real trouble is not with lands that have not yet been dealt with by purchasers Some plan could soon be devised either to do away with a Maori aristocracy or ensure that the lands should pay a fair proportion towards the revenue of the State. The trouble is mainly in regard to land to which the titles are incomplete ; land that has been partially dealt with by purchasers. To heavily tax these lands without giving some opportunity to get the titles completed would be a verv unfair thing, and the still greater difficulty that arises is that there are those who will continue litigation as far as ever they can go before they will give in unless they obtain that which they strive for. From what has been brought under our notice it seems that Commissions, too, must be deemed a failure, and that even when parties bind themselves to abide by the decision, whatever it may be, there is still no reasonable hope of finality. It may be found that the bottom level which has been looked to as a resting place may give way to a still deeper level which gives quite as little hope of solidity, even though the way be fought through all the vexations of litigation. In the instance referred to it seems that the Supreme Court is to be appealed to to step in and interfere in a matter that it was thought the Commissioner had finally settled, and in regard to which it was understood all the parties had agreed to abide by the decision of the Commission, let that be what it would. When such is the condition of things well may reformers turn aside and give up the problem as incapable of solution until there has been some radical change in the way in which such proceedings are viewed. As the matter stands little can be said concerning the merits of the thing, but it is sufficient to make one view the affair with a strange mixture of feeling when it is known that those who were understood to have agreed to accept a decision, whether it was adverse or not to their interests, are yet determined to allow of no finality until every resource has been availed of, unless they are given complete satisfaction.