Ngati Rangiteaorere and Ngati Rangiwewehi claim the 10 per cent of forests set aside for groups which did not enter the Treelords settlement. Photo / Supplied

Ngati Rangiteaorere and Ngati Rangiwewehi claim the 10 per cent of forests set aside for groups which did not enter the Treelords settlement. Photo / Supplied

The biggest funder of the Treaty settlements process faces dropping $30 million into the red this year - the first time in its 20-year history.

The Crown Forestry Rental Trust (CFRT) says it will receive $20.7 million from investments. But it will need to spend $50.7 million to keep pace with targets for the 2014 deadline.

Continual operating deficits are a worrying part of its future, an "unsustainable" scenario blamed in part on the demand for "specialist advisers".

Chief executive Ben Dalton will voice his concerns about the situation at celebrations of the half-billion dollar Treelords settlement in Turangi today.

But some commentators say that if CFRT is worried about costs, it shouldn't be funding those who have been part of failed attempts for large settlements.

Former MP John Tamihere chaired a Maori Affairs select committee inquiry into Treaty funding and the trust in 2003.

He said large firms were as much to blame for past failures as iwi and individuals who had not secured settlements.

"People and firms should be paid for success, not paid for prolonging the pain of the process. What you get is a number of prospects, firms, whose names continue to come up, who have really made the process far more tedious, far more tiresome and hugely costly."

The biggest failure is the three previous attempts at settling the 176,000ha Kaingaroa estate. It has cost $30 million over 19 years for no settlement.

Treaty lawyer Donna Hall led one of the best-known attempts - the Volcanic Interior Plateau project which split apart and ended in court.

Ms Hall is now working for Ngati Rangiteaorere and Ngati Rangiwewehi, which claim the 10 per cent of forests set aside for groups which did not enter the Treelords settlement. Sources say those groups have put in a proposal for more than $1 million of funding from the trust.

Ms Hall would not speak to the Herald yesterday. Chief executive Ben Dalton wouldn't be drawn on waste in the sector but said Treaty climate conditions were hammering the trust's books. It funds the sector by using interest off rentals from Crown forestry land - assets held in trust for Maori until ownership is determined.

Today the trust will hand over $284 million of accumulated rentals to Treelords iwi - about half its asset base.