Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

An Epitome of Official Documents Relative to Native Affairs and Land Purchases in the North Island of New Zealand

Crown Grants

Crown Grants.

When only one person is interested, the grant might be made free of any restrictions. When several are interested, the names of every tribe and hapu, and of the principal persons of each hapu, should be stated in the Crown grant; the persons named to have power to lease for periods not over twenty-one years, and to receive rents and divide them among the parties interested; but to have no power to sell or mortgage, being in truth merely trustees. When all parties interested are desirous to sell, the land should be advertised for sale by auction, under the direction of the Court, either in one or more lots as most for the interest of the parties concerned, a reserve price being always fixed.

It is recommended that one-half of the proceeds of the sale, after playing expenses, should be invested in Government security for the benefit of all parties interested, and not be paid off under twenty-one years; the other half only being paid in cash at the time of sale. The benefits anticipated by this arrangement are great. It would obviate the necessity of defining individual claims by survey before sale, a work of much trouble. The investing moiety of purchase-money would provide means of doing justice to minors, to a coming generation, and to any who might have suffered from unfair division of first moiety, and also form a bond of union between Natives and Europeans.

When a part only desire to sell their interests, an arrangement might be made for an equitable division of the land; one part to represent the interests of those who desired to sell, and the remainder to represent the interests of those who desired to retain their landed interests. Then the first might be sold under direction of the Court, by auction, in the manner and with the same provisions page 37as before suggested; and a Crown grant of the remainder might be given to the representatives of the hapus of those interested therein, with power to lease for terms not over twenty-one years, if so desired.