Bastion Pt addition wanted

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 5

Bastion Pt addition wanted

The Orakei Maori Action Committee says it wants part of the Okahu Bay Domain — undeveloped land on Bastion Point — and the Orakei Marae vested in the Ngati Whaatua Trust Board. That was among the demands a deputation committee put to -the Minister of Maori Affairs, Mr Wetere. on Wednesday. Afte£ the meeting, Mr

Wetere said there was a basis for settlement of the dispute over Bastion Point land.

A spokesman for Mr Wetere’s office said yesterday, however, that the Minister had cautioned that, before a final solution was found, it was important that he talk to all parties involved in the section, committee’s proposals.

Such parties, he said, included the Auckland City Council, the Orakei Maori Trust Board and the Ngati Whaatua Trust Board. Mr Wetere said one of the committee’s demands — the stopping of the Housing Corporation’s plans to sell some of the land for private development — could be met by new legislation. The leader of the deputa-

tion, Mr Joe Hawke, said yesterday that he had been heartened by Mr Wetere’s response. ”We have always said it was our plan to bring our fight to this stage of fruition,” he said. “But why has it taken so long when it was just a matter of recognising the moralistic values of our feelings for our tost ''•lands?”