WAITANGI TRUST BOARD

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28284, 23 May 1957, Page 19

WAITANGI TRUST BOARD

“Proceedings Far Too Secret” (New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 22. In his efforts to obtain an adequate water supply at Waitangi he had met with .frustration, and there was a definite fire danger to the Treaty House, said Mr C. A. Giblin, a former president of the Waitangi Golf Club, in Wellington. “If the historic buildings were burnt to the ground the people of New Zealand would realise then that they had lost a national asset and shrine,” said Mr Giblin. Two years ago the fire hazard had been considered by the Waitangi Trust Board, but he was convinced from recent information that the risk still remained, and he and other Bay of Islands residents were uneasy, he said. Between £2OOO and £3OOO was required to increase the storage capacity of the reservoir and improve pumping facilities, he said. There had been far too much secrecy about the board’s proceedings, and Waitangi, in his opinion, had been run more like a private estate than a national possession. Board members had deliberately avoided public attention, and little information was divulged about the Waitangi estate.

Only two meetings were held during the year, said Mr Giblin, and the secretary, an official of the Lands Department, which now had the principal say in control of the estate, lived in Wellington. One board member, he was informed, had not attended a meeting since the board was formally inaugurated at Waitangi. Mr Giblin said he concurred with a recent statement by Mr Hone Heke Rankin that a member of the Busby family should be appointed to the board. “It will probably come as a surprise to the public to learn that no Busby has ever been invited to join the board,” he said. “As I understand that Sir James Elliott has resigned his seat, an opportunity presents itself for such an appointment.” Recent Appointment It would be interesting for the public to know the reasons actuating appointments to the board, and who made the recommendations, said Mr Giblin. For example, a member of the Parata family, of Otago, was appointed in February to succeed the late Sir R. Heaton Rhodes on the board. The information had to be sought by a northern newspaper, but was probably unknown elsewhere in the country. The time had come, he said, for a revision of the 1932 act under which the Waitangi Estate is controlled, and he would personally welcome a frank discussion on it in Parliament.