April 22, 2015
Farm sale a travesty
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is describing the impending sale of a Maori Education Trust farm in south Wairarapa as a travesty.
The Mapuna Atea farm was gifted by the late Ned Holmes in the 1960s for the education of Wairarapa Maori.
In recent years the trust encumbered it with debt in an attempt to build up its dairy capacity, and it is now forced to sell.
Mr Peters says it should stay in Maori hands.
"It was given for a specific purpose and it was a marvellous gift from someone who realised his responsibility to Maori. It was for the Wairarapa people. It then got badly misused for all Maori round the country when it was not for them, it was for Wairarapa Maori alone. And then of course there has been some seriously questionable practices by the trust. That has resulted in the farm being put up. It would be a travesty for that to happen," Mr Peters says.
FOR THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH WINSTON PETERS CLICK ON THE LINK
https://secure.zeald.com/uma/play_podcast?podlink=MjgzNTk=
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