Refusal by Tribunal to rule

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 7

Refusal by Tribunal to rule

PA Wellington The Waitangi Tribunal has refused to rule on a northern tribe’s claim objecting to the siting of sewage ponds on ancestral land.

The tribunal said the Ngati Kahu people from Taipa had been prejudiced by planning procedures but Maori and pakeha interests should be balanced. The cost to the community would be too great if the claim was allowed, the report said. The claim by Mac Cully Matiu on behalf of Ngati Kahu Trust Board opposes the construction of a sewage treatment plant on Taipa land at Doubtless Bay. Mangdnui County Council, the scheme’s promoter, argued that the claimants had every opportunity to raise their concerns before but at no stage had they objected to the siting of the ponds. Objections to taking the land under the Public Works Act have still to be heard by the Planning Tribunal and the Waitangi Tribunal said there was nothing stopping the tribunal from reaching a

with,” Sir Graham said. “In this case while they gave us a very vivid background of how the Crown came to acquire my tribe’s land, they didn’t say they would make a decision. The tribunal, of predominantly Maori membership, comprised its chairman Chief Judge Edward Durie, the Rev.. Manuhuia Bennett, Mr Monita Delamere, Professor Keith Sorensen and Mrs Georgina Te Heuheu. “Ngati Kahu had good cause to bring their claim and reason to feel aggrieved and yet the cost to the community, of which Ngati Kahu forms part, would be too great in this instance, if their claim was allowed,” the tribunal’s report said. The tribunal members urged greater recognition of local tribunal interest where modern developments encroached on' traditional tribal areas.

different conclusion. A Ngati Kahu tribe member, Sir Graham Latimer, a former tribunal member, said he believed the tribunal was the proper place for a decision on Maori things. “The Waitangi Tribunal was set up to hear prejudices against any Maori or Maori group and that is the job they are charged