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The iwi representing the people of Parihaka says it can’t settle its historic treaty claims without special compensation for the 1882 occupation and sacking of the historic village on the slopes of Mount Taranaki.
Two neighbouring iwi, Te Atiawa and Ngaruahine, initialled deeds of settlement this week but Taranaki Tuturu held out.
Negotiator Mahara Okeroa says that’s because the proposed settlement of about $70 million was incomplete.
He says other claims have included special provisions for circumstances unique to particular tribes.
But crown negotiators haven’t been open to doing so for Parihaka, which was the centre for a campaign of non-violent resistance to Crown land confiscation throughout the 1870s.
Among the complicating factors is that the men captured at Parihaka and imprisoned in the South island can’t be pardoned, because they were never tried and convicted.
Mr Okeroa says the difference in what Taranaki iwi who settled early got and what those settling now have been offered indicates it is better to take longer and do the job right.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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