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Important Judgments: Delivered in the Compensation Court and Native Land Court. 1866–1879.

Compensation Court. [Ngatiruanui]

page 16

Compensation Court. [Ngatiruanui]

Whanganui, June, 1866.

T. H. Smith, Esq., Judge.

The Claimants to the Ngatiruanui Coast Block.
(Between the Kaupokonui and Whanganui Rivers.)

This is a portion, of the Ngatiruanui Coast Block, taken under the authority of The New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863, by an Order in Council dated 2nd September, 1865. The Crown Agent, on behalf of the Colonial Secretary, having abandoned the right of the Crown to take that portion of the Ngatiruanui Coast Block which lies to the east of the Waitotara River, and of a line running 20 deg. 30 min. east of north, as shown on the map, the Court has to deal with claims for compensation in respect only of the confiscated land lying to the west of that boundary.

The claims referred to this Court, purporting to relate to land between Kaupokonui and Waitotara Rivers, are 68 in number, and contain 630 names of claimants. In the course of the investigation a large proportion of these names have been shown to be duplicates. Some of the claimants have failed to appear before the Court either personally or by agent, and their claims have not been heard. The number of persons interested in the claims heard by the Court is 265. Of these, the claims of 119 are admitted, those of 146 are rejected. Of the last number, 51 were found to be excluded under the fifth section of The New Zealand Settlements Act, 1863.

The admitted claims are divided into two classes—(1) claims established by proof of actual residence and cultivation up to within a recent period: these are 40 in number;(2) claims of persons long absent and settled elsewhere, but who themselves, or whose parents, or near relatives, were in the year 1840 actual owners and possessors of the land the subject of claim: these are 79 in number. Ancestral claims where neither the claimant nor his parents have ever occupied as seitled residents are rejected.

The evidence before the Court shows that the land comprised within the boundaries of this portion of the Ngatiruanui Coast Block belonged to the Ngaruahine, Tangahoe, Pakakohi, and Ngarauru tribes, and to other smaller tribes, more or less connected with these. The boundaries of the land claimed by these tribes respectively can be fixed on or near the sea coast, but there is no evidence as to the inland boundaries, nor any data upon which the extent of territory belonging to each tribe can be determined, neither can the position or extent of any of the claims be determined upon evidence before the Court. Such evidence as would be required to determine these page 17points it would be difficult, if not impossible, to procure, while-the expense and delay involved in attempting to procure' it would be greatly disproportionate to any advantage likely to result therefrom, either to the claimants or to the Government. It has appeared to the Court that substantial justice will be done to the admitted claimants by basing a decision as to the value of their claims upon the principle of assuming that the whole extent of the land belonged to the whole number of resident owners in equal proportions, subject to the interest of non-residents. Each loyal resident, or admitted claimant of the first class, will thus be entitled to the value of a single share. The value of the claims of the non-residents, or admitted claimants of the second class, is determined on the following principle: The interest of absentee members of the tribe is admitted by the residents, but the tribal estate must be regarded as held by the actual residents, whose dispossession, by whatever means effected, will be a dispossession of the whole tribe. The interest of absentees who have abandoned the tribal lands, and acquired possessions and a settlement elsewhere, cannot be regarded as existing independently of the tribe, as represented by the residents, or otherwise than as subject to contingencies which may affect the position of the latter as owners and possessors of the common tribal estate. The absentee claims depending solely on the maintenance of possession by the residents, must be held as subject to diminution in proportion to the extent to which the residents became dispossessed of or forfeited their right in the land. The interest of a loyal absentee claimant will thus bear that proportion to the interest of a loyal resident which the number of loyal residents bears to the number of resident rebels.

The evidence before the Court supplies the following data:— The area of that portion of the Ngatiruanui Coast Block, which is the subject of the present investigation, is computed to be 428,000 acres. The open land and available bush, extending five miles and a half inland from the coast line, is estimated at 131,720 acres, leaving as bush land unavailable 296,280 acres. The persons interested in this land as residents number 997. Of these, 957 have been engaged in rebellion since January, 1863, and 40 are residents whose claims to compensation are admitted, the Crown having elected to give the claimants land in lieu of money as compensation for their claims.

It is ordered by the Court that the claimants whose names are set down in the schedule appended hereto, and marked A, are entitled to receive four thousand eight hundred (4,800) acres of open and available land, and eleven thousand two hundred (11,200) acres of bush land, being at the rate of one hundred and twenty (120) acres each of open and available land, and at the rate of two hundred and eighty (280) acres each of bush land. The open and available land to be of value equal to the average value of land lying within five miles and a half inland of the coast line between Waitotara and Kaupokonui, and the bush land to be of value equal to the average page 18value of bush land lying beyond five miles and a half from the coast line.

It is further ordered that the claimants whose names are set down in the schedule appended hereto, and marked B, are entitled to receive three hundred and ninety-five (395) acres of open and available land, and eight hundred and sixty-nine (869) acres of bush land, being at the rate of five (5) acres each of available and eleven (11) acres each of bush land. The open and available land and the bush land to be of the same value respectively as prescribed in the case of the claimants in Schedule A.

And it is further ordered that the land hereby awarded to the claimants in Schedule A and to the claimants in Schedule B respectively shall be selected by the claimants and by the agents for the Crown in conformity with the ninth clause of the Rules and Regulations for the Practice and Procedure of the Compensation Courts, made by an Order in Council, dated 16th June, 1866, in blocks of such extent and in such localities available for the purpose as may be desired by the claimants, with the view of locating together members of the same tribe, and of including, when practicable, land which they have previously occupied and cultivated, such selection being subject to the final award of the Court.