The Short Title of this Act is “The Native Land Court Act 1886 Amendment Act, 1888:” and this Act shall be read and construed as part of the “Native Land Court Act, 1886” (hereinafter called “the said Act”).

Section three of the said Act is hereby repealed, and it is hereby enacted that the said Act shall be read as if, in lieu thereof, it had been thereby enacted, In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context,—

Any conveyance of land held by memorial of ownership or certificate of title issued by the Court may be lodged with a Native Land Court Registrar, together with a true copy of such deed and of any indorsements thereon; and, if such deed have indorsed thereon a Trust Commissioner’s certificate and is duly stamped and executed, it shall be a duty of such Registrar to make a minute of the contents of such deed upon any memorial or certificate of title in his custody, and having relation to the land the subject of such deed.

Where one such deed or several such deeds together effect a conveyance of the entire area held under a certificate or memorial, it shall be a duty of the Chief Judge, assisted by an Assessor, after due notice and by inquiry in open Court, to ascertain the bona fides of the transaction; and, if it is found to be equitable, and not in contravention of any law in force at the time such deed or deeds were executed, to forward such deed or deeds to the Governor, with a recommendation that a warrant for land-transfer certificate should issue for the land conveyed.

Thereon a warrant for the issue of a certificate of title under “The Land Transfer Act, 1885,” may, if in the opinion of the Governor the report of the Chief Judge warrants it, issue to the person entitled under such deed or deeds. Such warrant shall be accompanied by the particulars of any lease or other instrument affecting the land the subject of such warrant which may be registered as hereinafter provided.

Subject to the provisions of this Act, mutatis mutandis, deeds, not being conveyances, relating to land held by memorial of ownership or certificate of title issued by the Court may be registered with a Registrar of the Court by delivering to him a true copy of such deed, and submitting the original for comparison.

It shall thereon be a duty of the Registrar to minute the contents of such deed as provided for in relation to conveyances.

Restrictions on alienation which may hereafter be ordered may be annulled or varied by order of the Court on application by a majority in number of the owners of the land the subject of such restriction, but such restriction shall only be annulled or varied on public inquiry by the said Court, after notice has been given in the Gazette and Kahiti:

Provided that no restriction shall be annulled or varied as aforesaid unless the Court be satisfied that, apart from the land to be relieved from restriction, the owners of such land have other land, or shares in other land, the title whereto has been determined by the Court, belonging to them in their own right, and sufficient for their maintenance and occupation, and that, as to the land the subject of the restriction to be removed, those appearing as owners, and all others having a beneficial interest, concur in the proposed removal.

A Minister of the Crown may at any time cause application to be made to the Court to ascertain the interest, if any, acquired by Her Majesty in any land, and in respect of such an application the Court shall have the powers and authorities it would have in respect of a matter within its ordinary jurisdiction, and may make such order thereon as it may deem fit.

Land by such order declared to have been acquired by Her Majesty shall, from the date of such order, be deemed to be vested in Her Majesty for such estate as in such order mentioned. As to the residue, if any, of such land the Court may make order declaring such residue to be the property of such of the owners of the land as shall be mentioned in such order, and the owners so mentioned shall thereon be owners of such residue, exclusive of any theretofore co-owners.

Where the relative interests of Native lessors of land have been determined, rent accruing to them under a lease may be paid to them in proportion to such relative interests unless otherwise reserved by the lease.

Such payment may be made to each individual lessor of his share as so determined, or to any person or persons appointed and authorised by the lease to receive the rent to accrue thereunder on behalf of the lessors. A receipt signed by such person or persons shall be a good discharge for the money therein expressed to be received.

Where there is a dispute as to the several rights of Natives claiming as lessors, any lessee of land may make summary application to a Judge for an order that any rent to accrue under such lease, or accrued and unpaid, be paid into some public account to be named in such order, or to some official to be nominated by the Governor. Thereon such Judge may order as he may deem fit, and payment of the rent in accordance with an order shall be deemed a payment made in accordance with the terms of the lease.

A Judge may from time to time, by order, direct that the moneys, or any part thereof, so paid in shall be paid out to or among the lessors, or to some person on their behalf, as such Judge may deem fit.

Until the relative interests of Native lessors have been determined, they shall, as to rent accruing to them under the lease, be deemed to be entitled thereto in equal shares, unless otherwise provided in the lease.

If an order be made under section twenty or twenty-one of the said Act declaring land to be owned by Natives more than twenty in number, the Court shall direct that upon the title to such land becoming first “ascertained,” such land shall, if practicable, be forthwith partitioned under the said Act so that each parcel thereof shall be owned by not more than twenty Natives.

Any such direction as aforesaid shall be deemed to be and shall be dealt with as an application for partition made by owners under the said Act: Provided that no person or company shall acquire in freehold more than five thousand acres of land.

The Court, on making an order under sections twenty, twenty-one, thirty-one, or thirty-three of the said Act, is hereby empowered and directed to ascertain as to each owner whether be has a sufficiency of inalienable land for his support, and shall, out of the land the subject of any such order, declare to be inalienable so much and such parts as shall be necessary for the support of any owner not shown to be possessed of such sufficiency, and such part or share shall be inalienable accordingly.

The Court, as regards orders of inalienability heretofore made, shall be deemed to have had authority to make such orders.

An order or finding of the Court made during the hearing of, but before final decision in, a case before it shall not abate by reason of a Judge or an Assessor, or of both a Judge and Assessor, ceasing to hold office or being for a time unable to execute the duties thereof; but any such case may be continued to final decision with a substitute Judge or Assessor or both.

In the investigation of the title to “Rohe-Potae” now before the Court, any interlocutory orders or decisions already made or arrived at declaring the ownership of parts of “Rohe-Potae,” shall be deemed to be, and as to such respective parts shall have the effect of orders made under clause twenty of the said Act, declaring the ownership of the land the subject of each such order, and which orders shall be deemed to have been made on the day of the passing of this Act.

And as to interlocutory orders or decisions declaring the ownership of other parts of “Rohe-Potae” aforesaid, which may be hereafter made by the Court during the investigation aforesaid, such orders or decisions shall be deemed to be like orders as aforesaid and to have been made under the said clause twenty, and shall have effect on and from the day of the making thereof respectively.

Notwithstanding any interlocutory order or decision already made or given, or which may hereafter be made or given, in respect of “Rohe-Potae,” or any part thereof, no part of the said land shall in any way be dealt or interfered with before the expiration of three years from the passing of this Act, and, until the expiration of that time, the said land shall be deemed to be Native land within the meaning of the clauses numbered five and seven of “The Native Lands Frauds Prevention Act 1881 Amendment Act, 1888,” and the said several clauses shall apply and be in force in respect of the said land and every part thereof. But this provision shall not apply to or affect the Crown, or to any person acting for or on behalf of the Crown, under the authority of a Minister of the Crown.

Land or shares in land owned by Natives shall be deemed to have been transferable, and may hereafter be transferred by deed executed and attended with the formalities for the time being prescribed by law as to deeds intended to affect the title of Natives to land.

But this provision shall not apply to any deed purporting to alienate land where such alienation was restricted or recommended to be restricted by order of the Court, or where such alienation may hereafter be so restricted.

Deeds purporting to convey undivided shares in land held by Natives, and executed under or on the authority of any certificate issued under section twenty-live of “The Native Land Administration Act, 1886,” shall, if the land the subject of such deed was not by the instrument under which it is held made or recommended to be made inalienable, be and be deemed to have been as effectual a conveyance of such undivided shares as it would have been had the land the subject of such deed been held by the Native owners under grant from the Crown: Provided that nothing in this section shall validate or give effect to any conveyance, transfer, gift, contract, or promise affecting or relating to any Native land made before a certificate of title or memorial of ownership had been issued by the Native Land Court, or which is void or illegal under any Act of the General Assembly for the time being in force.

Section fourteen of. “The Native Committees Act, 1883,” shall be read as if the words “Chief Judge” in the last line thereof had been omitted therefrom, and the word “Registrar” inserted in lieu thereof.

To enable cestuis que trust to become the certificated owners of the lands to which they arc entitled, the provisions of, clauses two, three, four, and five of “The Native Equitable Owners Act, 1886,” shall apply to lands in the Bay of Plenty District which have been recommended to be granted, or which have been granted, to persons who were selected from other known owners to be trustees for themselves and others, but who have been placed by such grants in the position of absolute owners of such lands.

In determining the right to succession in respect of either Native land, hereditaments, or personal estate, the child of a half-caste shall be deemed to be a Native.

It shall be a duty of the Court on making any order as mentioned in section forty-two of the said Act to forthwith exercise the power of deciding relative interests conferred by the said section, whether such procedure is applied for or not.

The Governor may from time to time appoint a person to act as Deputy for any Registrar for such period as the appointment may direct.

During the continuance of such appointment a Deputy shall have, exercise, and perform all the powers and duties of a Registrar.

Section forty-three of the said Act is hereby repealed, and it is hereby enacted that the said Act shall be read as if in lieu thereof it had been thereby enacted: In case any Native has died, or shall die entitled to any estate, share, or interest in any land, either in severalty or otherwise, the Court may, on the application of any Native claiming to be interested therein, inquire and ascertain who ought to succeed to such estate, share, or interest.

In respect of land held by memorial of ownership or certificate or title issued by the Court, the Court shall be guided by Native custom or usage.

In respect of other land the Court shall decide according to the law of New Zealand as nearly as it can be reconciled with Native custom.

Sections seventy-six and seventy-seven of the said Act are hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof it is enacted:—

Every application for a rehearing shall be determined by the Chief Judge sitting in open Court, assisted by an Assessor. The Chief Judge may dismiss such application, or may order a rehearing as to the whole or any part of the land, or as to any question of title thereto, on such terms as to delivery of possession or otherwise, and as to payment of or the giving of security for costs and expenses or otherwise, as he shall in his discretion order.

All rehearings shall, subject to the powers of adjournment in the said Act contained, be had at a time and place to be notified, and shall be determined by a Court of not less than two Judges, of whom the Chief Judge may be one and one Assessor, none of whom shall have adjudicated on the case at any former time.

Section eighty-six of the said Act is hereby repealed, and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted: Any order having the effect of a mortgage shall be deemed to be a mortgage under the Land Transfer Act and entitled to registration accordingly, and the money intended to be secured by any such order shall be deemed to be due at the end of twelve months from the making of the order, and not earlier, and shall carry interest on the sum secured by it at the rate of five pounds per centum per annum.

Section seventeen of the said Act shall be read as if the words “subject to and in manner directed by any rules for the time being in force” had been omitted therefrom.

The Registrar of the Court for any district within which application may be made for investigation of title, partition, or succession, or other business, shall forward to the Chairman of each Committee constituted under ‘The Native Committees Act, 1883,’ within his district, forthwith upon the same being received, a copy of each application as aforesaid which may be lodged with him.

If any report relating to an application for investigation of title has been lodged with the Registrar by any Committee aforesaid, the Court shall, before proceeding to deal with such application, consider such report, and by consent of the parties to such application and of any counter-claimants may proceed on such consideration to determine the application, or may limit the calling of evidence, or otherwise direct the further conduct of the case.

Section twenty-three of the said Act shall be read as if the last twenty-one words therein had been omitted therefrom.

Section twenty-six of the said Act shall be read as if the last twelve words had been omitted therefrom.

Section thirty-three of the said Act shall be read as if to the third line thereof there had been added the words “and each such order shall be prepared in duplicate, and when an approved plan of the parcel of land the subject thereof shall have been placed thereon.”

Section thirty-six of the said Act shall be read as if there had been added thereto the words “each parcel of land in respect of which a lease-order shall be made shall, as between the lessee and the purchaser, be and continue subject to such lease and, except as varied by such lease-order; to the terms thereof.”

Section fifty of the said Act shall be read as if all the words after the word “be” in the fourth line thereof had been omitted therefrom, and the words “delivered to the parties entitled” had been inserted in lieu thereof.

Section seventy-nine of the said Act shall be read as if the words “as the plan” had been inserted after the word “plan” in the second line thereof.

Section eighty-three of the said Act shall be read as if after the word “favour” in the second line thereof, the words “of the Surveyor-General or” had been inserted.

Subsection (a.) of section ninety-five of the said Act shall be read as if the word “fifteen” in the second line of the subsection had been omitted therefrom, and ’the word “ten” had been inserted in lieu thereof.

Section ninety-six of the said Act shall be read as if there had been added thereto the following words: “When any road is laid off along the boundary, between land owned by Natives and land owned by Europeans, such roads shall be taken equally from both such lands where practicable”:

Provided that the Government have the right to lay off or take roads on or from the lands of both owners.

Section one hundred and three of the said Act shall be read as if after the word “Judges”there had been inserted the words “or a majority of them,” and as if the second paragraph therein had been omitted.

Notwithstanding the provisions of any Act to the contrary, the lands severally called Porangahau, Mangamaire, Waipiro, and Ngarara, shall be inalienable until after the termination of the next session of the General Assembly.

Whereas in cases where the right of Natives to alienate land was conditional upon the assent of the Governor in Council being obtained to such alienation, the assent of the Governor, but not in Council, has been given and acted on:

Be it enacted that, where the assent of the Governor purports or can be proved to have been given to the alienation of land by a Native, such assent shall be deemed to have been given by the Governor in Council, and any such assent as aforesaid shall be valid and sufficient whether given before or after the alienation to which it refers.

All existing licenses to interpreters shall terminate on the thirty-first of December next, and new licenses terminable at any time on revocation shall be issued only to persons of approved moral character and proved knowledge of the Maori language.