Proposal for tribal quota

Press, 2 June 1989, Page 10

Proposal for tribal quota

By

JANE DUNBAR

The Waitangi Tribunal received "a bolt out of the blue” when a group of commercial fishermen, of Ngai Tahu descent, put forward a proposal for managing any fishing resource which might be allocated to the tribe.

The group of 47 commercial fishermen has formed a trust, the Tane Moana Runanga Trust, and suggest any fishing quota allocated to Ngai Tahu should be vested in this group. The trust would then lease out the quota. The trust’s solicitor, Mr Anthony Corcoran, said the proposal was not in competition with the Ngai Tahu claim, but was in support of it.

The submission came as “a bolt out of the blue,” said the deputy chairman of the tribunal, Judge Ashley McHugh. It was a surprise proposal. The chairman of the Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board, Mr Tipene O’Regan, said the proposal was not acceptable to the tribe. The commercial knowledge and competence of Ngai Tahu fishermen would be important for the management of any fishing resource, but the tribe had decided it should own any quota allocated, he said.

“We’re proposing there would be a tribally-owned company which would administer and lease to its own first any tribally-owned quota. The title would be owned by the iwi (tribe) authority, accountable to the runanga (councils) throughout the South Island.” Some commercial fishermen of Ngai Tahu descent had vested interests in the allocation of quotas, but these interests could still be met if the quotas were owned by the tribe as a whole. The tribe gave strong support to Mr O’Regan yesterday, with people coming from Kaikoura and the West Coast to be at the hearing.