No. 449, 1889. —Petition of Aperahama Tipae and 3 Others.

Petitioners are members of the Ngatiapa Tribe. They state that they have an ancestral title to a large strip of land between the Whangaehu and Turakina Rivers; that the land in question was divided into eighteen blocks, and the Native Land Court, in fixing the titles, applied a different principle to the particular block in which petitioners are interested to that applied to other blocks; that the petitioners have suffered injustice thereby, and have been refused a rehearing of the case. They pray that the decision of the Native Land Court, which heard the case, and also the decision of the Chief Judge, who refused a rehearing, may be reviewed.

I am directed to report: (1.) That the main allegations in the petition have been proved. (2.) That the case be reheard before the Native Land Court, and that Government introduce the necessary legislation to allow that to be done. (3.) That, in the opinion of this Committee, the principle of equity requires that Native customs should be adhered to in dealing with the block in the same way as it was observed in the other seventeen blocks adjudicated on under the same deed of cession.