Mount Egmont to change hands?

Press, 24 June 1978, Page 2

Mount Egmont to change hands?

: PA Wellington I A bill which would hand Mount Egmont over to the Maori people of Taranaki, so that they could give it back to the Crown, was introduced in Parliament yesterday. The exchange is a paper transaction conducted in consecutive clauses of the Mount Egmont Vesting Bill, but its significance is important symbolically, because it overcomes a long-standing grievance of the Taranaki tribes about ownership of the mountain, which they still refer to as “Taranaki.”

“The Maori people of Taranaki in particular, and New Zealand in general, will be able to say that this great public treasure has been given to the nation by its original owners, or, as the Maori might say, by their traditional caretakers, as a free and loving gift,” said the Minister of Lands (Mr V. ( S. Young) when he intro- j duced the bill.

The Taranaki Maori people had felt a “burning desire” for a considerable time not only to regain their mountain. “but to fulfil that part of their history by making a gift to the nation which will ensure the continued reservation of their mountain, Taranaki.”

Mr Young said that the bill was wholeheartedly approved by the Taranaki Maori people. Opposition speakers welcomed the bill and suggested the Government consider changing the name of Mount Egmont to “Mount Taranaki”.

But the Minister of Maori Affairs (Mr Maclntyre) said this had been discussed with Maori elders.

“They said that to them the mountain has always been Taranaki and to you’pakehas it can be anything you like,” Mr Maclntyre said. The Maori people were not worried about changing the name.