The Public Works Act 1928

The Public Works Act 1928 contains some of the most racist clauses that ever stained New Zealand's statute Books. Section 22 subsection 3 states:

"The provision of this section requiring the names of the owners and occupiers of the land to be shown on the plan therof, and requiring copies of the notice to be served on the said owners and occupiers .... shall have no application to any Maori who is an owner or occupier of the land or has an interest therein unless his title to the land is registered under the Land Transfer Act 1952....'

A great deal of Maori land is under multiple ownership and on the Maori Land Court's "files record": it is registered but not on the books of the Land Transfer Office. Hence it does not satisfy section 22, ss3. The only statutory notice many Maori owners get is a samll announcement in the Public Notices column of the local paper.

How many "ordinary blokes" (blame Muldoon for that tag) read the public notices column expecting to find an announcement that their land is being compulsorily acquired for public works? Often Maori owners only find out their land has been sold when the bulldozer is on the front paddock. Too late to object they often give up without a fight.

Only Maori land is excluded from the ratification process. Why has no proviso similar to that in s12. ss3 of the Reserves Act 1977 been included? This proviso brings Maori land on the "files record" into the ratification process but it is significant that it took extensive lobbying by the Maori Council, Tairawhiti District Maori Council, and the Maori Graduates Assn. to get this proviso included. This anomaly requires urgent rectification yet the government doesn't seem too concerned.