SACRED PUKEROA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 302, 22 December 1933, Page 5

SACRED PUKEROA.

CONTROL WRANGLE.

GOVERNMENT OR COUNCIL? SPIRITED MAORI PROTEST. (From Our Own Correspondent.) ROTORUA, Thursday. The vexed question of the control of Pukeroa.Hill, the site of King George V. Hospital, was again the subject of much discussion at the meeting of the Rotorua Borough Council last night. Now that the Health Department has decided to hand over the hospital administration! to the Waikato Hospital Board, the! council is apprehensive that it will lose its rights as trustee of the hill for the people of Rotorua. It lias no objection | to the granting of a 21 years' lease to the Hospital Board, but it does notj wish the issue of that lease to be taken as an abrogation of its trusteeship title. | In the issue of the proposed lease the council has been ignored by the Government. The Mayor, Mr. T. Jackson, said there appeared no doubt about the Crown's ownership of the land, but it was clear that if the Crown put the land to any other use than the purpose for which it I was given, it would be guilty of a breach of trust. The land had not been given to the Crown.to use as it liked, but in trust for the "use and enjoyment of the people of Rotorua." It vms for the council to say whether the rights of the citizens should be over-ridden. Mr. E. T. Johnson was of opinion that the only way to protect the rights of the people was to put a caveat on the land. This would put the Crown on the defence. The motion was ceconded by Mr. O. 1„ Coleman and carried, and the borough solicitors --.re to be consulted at once. The Native View. Following the council discussion,' the Maoris have immediately made a statement of their attitude. Mr. H. Tai Mitchell, on behalf of the Ngati Whakaue, says: —

"Ngati Whakaue definitely oposes the Borough Council's attempt to control Pukeroa Hill. That would indeed be a breach of trust if this reserve passes over to a private corporation without the fullest consent of the Ngati Whakaue. Pukeroa Hill, with all its historical associations, its burial and other sacred spots—human and Divine—cannot and shall not be made the sporting arena of objectionable local politics. This hill is the 'mana' of Ngati Whakaue, treasured and enriched by song and poem, holding in its bosom the love and reverence of a tribe which passed through a stormy past with honour and distinction, culminating in the generous instincts, which gave Utterance to the magnificent gifts to the town of Kotorua. which the ratepayers now enjoy in educational provisions, in sport, and' in recreation.

"Given to the Crown in Trust."

"These gifts were" given to the Crown in trust, and in the control of every gift j property handed over by the Crown; to the borough, Ngati Whakaue has I raised no objection, but regarding the Pukeroa Reserve, because of tribal history and tradition, Ngati Whakaue cannot and will not agree to the Government divesting itself of its trusteeship without the fullest discussion and agreement with Ngati Whakaue. "Legal sophistry will not avail in this case, for Parliament will be the final tribunal to decide the issue if necessary." There the matter stands at present, and the next move should be interesting.