June 11, 2020
Land hunt as court backs Māori pact
Nelson’s Wakatū Incorporation is looking for land held by crown and local government agencies which can be returned to it.
Chair Paul Morgan says it’s part of a work plan arising from a 2017 Supreme Court ruling that the crown was bound by the original purchase agreement to reserve 10 percent of the land for the original owners.
While crown commissioners put some land into reserves in the 1840s and 1850s, a lot of land was either missed out or later sold by crown trustees.
The current investigation includes not just government agencies but the Tasman District Council, which manages many of the crown reserves.
Mr Morgan says the legal battle, which has been going on for a decade, is forcing the courts to look at major constitutional issues about the identity and duties of the crown.
"To put it simply our ancestors did a simple deal with them which allowed the new immigrants, tangata tiriti, to come to New Zealand but they never honoured the arrangements and we're holding them to account as the trustees of that estate in 2020," Mr Morgan says.
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