Breaches of treaty laid before tribunal

Press, 2 December 1987, Page 8

Breaches of treaty laid before tribunal

"Flagrant” breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and "blatant confiscations” of land by the Government were yesterday laid before the Waitangi Tribunal by Mr Paul Temm, Q.C.

Mr Temm was addressing the tribunal as counsel for the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board which has lodged the largest land claim in New Zealand.

The Maori people had born the brunt of a discriminatory system, he said.

Because of colonial pressure and greed for land, the Government had “confiscated” land which had been reserved for the “sole use” of the Maori people.

The Crown had contrived to do this through leaseholds in perpetuity because its performance in confiscating land by initiating was no longer popular or practical. "So the land which had been reserved for sole Maori use was leased out for 21 year in terms perpetuity ... forever. That is how the land which had been reserved for the Maori came to be in pakeha hands and it has been in pakeha hands ever since. There had to be an end to the confiscation of land whether it was through Public Works Acts or leasehold in perpetuity. But the tribe would not ask for their full entitle-

ment which could be to halt the leases immediately or seek compensation for a breach of trust “because the cost of that which they are entitled to would be astronomical.”

• Instead the tribe would grant the lessees two further renewals of the term giving them 42 years in which to adjust, he said. The tribe also sought a recommendation giving them ownership of the Arahura River.

“The whole river from mouth to source to them and that ownership right must be established along with their rights to the pounamu (greenstone) which means so much to them.”