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1904. NEW ZEALAND.

NATIVE AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: REPORT ON PETITIONS OF KUINI WI RANGIPUPU (Mrs. THOMPSON) AND HENI TE RAU (Mrs. JANE BROWN), TOGETHER WITH MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. (Mr. R.M. HOUSTON, Chairman.)

Report brought up 29th September, 1904, ordered to lie on Table and be printed on 2nd November, 1904.

REPORT.

Nos. 283 and 483. —Petitions of Kuini Wi Eangipupd (Mrs. Thompson) and Heni te Rau (Mrs. Jane Brown). Petitionees complain of the Public Trustee's management of their lands, and pray that may be allowed to have the same under their own control. I am directed to report that the Committee recommends that the complaints, as set forth in the petitions, be investigated and reported on by a Stipendiary Magistrate, a Judge of the Native Land Court, or any suitable tribunal appointed by the Government; such report to be submitted to Parliament. A copy of the evidence taken is attached hereto. 29th September, 1904.

PETITIONS.

No. 283, 1904 (Mr. Fraser). —Petition op Kuini Wi Rangipupu. To the Honourable tho Speaker and members of the House of Representatives of the Colony of New Zealand in Parliament assembled. The petition of Kuini Wi Rangipupu, of Hapotiki, in the District of Hawera, in the Colony of New Zealand, humbly showeth, — 1. That your petitioner is an aboriginal Native of New Zealand, and owner under Crown grant of lands administered under the West Coast Settlement Reserves Act and amending Acts. 2. That your petitioner has obtained from the Native Land Courts orders of partition for the portions to which she is entitled, has paid all survey fees, succession duties, and fees of the Native Land Court, together with charges made for issue of orders; has annually paid land-tax and local rates demanded, and fulfilled all the responsibilities of a British subject and a loyal colonist. 3. That, notwithstanding this, your petitioner is unable to beneficially occupy her lands (part of those which Sir William Fox promised, by special proclamation, should belong to the Natives and their heirs for ever, and which have been granted to me in fulfilment of that promise by her late Most Gracious Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, of sacred memory) without a license to occupy issued by the Public Trustee, or a lease granted by the same functionary, either of which has to be paid for annually. 4. That being told by the Public Trustee that, although I was in occupation of such portions which had not been let by the Public Trustee, I had no other protection in such occupation than a license or lease from him, and seeing lands not so protected leased by the Public Trustee to Europeans, I, under such duress, obtained a lease from the Public Trustee for my Crown-granted lands. 5. That portions of your petitioner's land are already leased to Europeans by the Public Trustee, who collects the rents and disburses them to your petitioner after deducting 7 per cent, for his trouble, rates paid to local bodies, land-tax to the Government, and a mortgage-tax, which I do not understand and feel I ought not to pay. 6. That the Public Trustee not only charges your petitioner rent for her own Crown-granted land, and deducts the amount of such rent from other rents he has collected from tenants leasing other- portions of your petitioner's land, charging 7 per cent, for the collection, but he also charges another 7 per cent, for collecting the money, already in his hands, in payment of my rent, so that an amount equalling the amount of my rent to him has paid that functionary 14 per cent, from the time it leaves the European lessees' hands till it reaches your petitioner. I—l. 3a.