July 24, 2013
Land Court sacks dysfunctional trust
The Māori Land Court has sacked the trustees of a hill country block after discovering more than $200,000 of Conservation Department funding had disappeared.
The Awarua ō Hinemanu Trust, which has a 2600 hectare block between Hawke's Bay and Taihape, was given the money to protect indigenous forest.
Judge Layne Harvey says the money appears to be gone, and most of the trustees appear to have no knowledge of where it has gone.
The trust has not filed accounts since 2010 and has not held a meeting of its 821 owners for more than five years.
Judge Harvey quizzed trustee James Matenga on why he had been the sole signatory on cheques requiring the signature of more than one trustee, with many trust cheques made out to himself.
He advised Mr Matenga to see a lawyer urgently and adjourned the matter until October.
The review of the trust was sparked when a trustee filed an injunction to remove a killer from living on a hut on the land.
Wilson Apatu was acquitted on manslaughter in 2010 after he shot and killed his neighbour while living north of Napier the previous year.
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