Listen Now: 
The chair of the Mangatu Blocks is disappointed the Waitangi Tribunal has refused to stop land formerly owned by the giant East Coast incorporation being used for a treaty settlement.
Alan Haronga says there are positives and negatives in the report which came out just before Christmas.
He says the incorporation will decide on any further action once its legal and management teams have had a chance to analyse the findings.
Mangatu, Te Aitanga a Mahaki and Affiliates, Nga Ariki Kaiputahi, and Te Whanau a Kai each separately asked the Tribunal to make a binding recommendation for the return of Mangatu Crown forest licensed lands as a remedy for historical claims.
The claims had been reported on in 2004, when the tribunal identified significant Crown Treaty breaches, especially the loss of life and land suffered by Maori in the Turanga or Gisborne district.
The forest lands are part of the 8522 acres the Crown forced Mangatu to sell in 1961.
In 2011 the Supreme Court directed the tribunal to hear Mangatu’s application for remedy.
The three other groups subsequently lodged similar applications in respect of their own claims.
In rejecting the requests, the tribunal says it could not be certain that a binding recommendation for the return of Mangatū Crown forest licensed land would provide redress proportionate to the prejudice suffered and that it was unable to make recommendations that would be fair and equitable between the four groups.
It says redress that seemed to favour one group over others would risk creating fresh grievances and might undermine the chances of achieving a durable settlement of the claims.
The Tribunal urged all the applicants to return to settlement negotiations with the Crown.
It says such negotiations give them flexibility to develop a comprehensive settlement of all their claims, which it could not achieve in this case through the use of its binding powers.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
RELATED NEWS
