Listen Now: 
The Maori Land Court has removed the Tuhoe Waikaremoana Maori Trust Board as trustee for 13 Maori reservations bordering Lake Waikaremoana.
The move means the private land won’t be incorporated into the Tuhoe settlement now before parliament.
It also gives heart to members of Ngati Kahungunu and Ngati Ruapani who say the Government is steamrolling the interests of other tribes and private owners to get a settlement.
Judge Karen Fox says as part of the settlement, the assets of the trust board and its trustee responsibilities are being vested in the new Tuhoe settlement organisation, Tuhoe Te Uru Taumata.
She says the owners of the Waikaremoana Reserves want their own representatives in charge, and asked the court to create an Ahu Whenua Trust for that purpose.
In June last year the Tuhoe Waikaremoana Trust Board wrote to the court to advise it was surrendering its trustee role.
Tuhoe Te Uru Taumata tried to contest that decision, but Judge Fox says the court appointed the board as a trustee and it is free to accept its resignation.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
RELATED NEWS
