Historic Tauranga cemetery returned to Maori

A Battle of Gate Pa Military Memorial Service at Mission Cemetery.

Tauranga's Mission Cemetery has been returned to Maori, one month on since Battle of Gate Pa commemorations were made on the same site.

The cemetery is part of a 7863 square metre site transferred from the New Zealand Mission Trust to the Otamataha Trust - the Hapu of Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho.

National List MP Claudette Hauiti congratulated Tauranga Moana Hapu Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho for the passing of the bill, which resulted in the transfer of the land, which the Trinity Wharf Hotel sits on.

The Otamatea Trusts currently collects ground rent from the Hotel.

"The Hapu can now use those monies for both commercial and social investments to determine their rangatiratanga," Ms Hauiti said.

Mr Flavell said the bill was the final step in extinguishing the New Zealand Mission Trust Board and discharging its trustees.

"Through the legislation we pass today, we will mandate the change in the trust and the beneficiaries, and, in doing so, unshackle the hapu of Ngati Tapu and Ngai Tamarawaho," Mr Flavell said.

"A key issue at the heart of this bill is that awarding the Crown Grant in 1852 was actually contrary to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. But we must not abandon the broader context of this bill, which was that the actions that resulted in the land transaction at Otamataha were in themselves a punishment meted out to those so-called natives, those heathens, for the battles at Te Ranga and Pukehinahina ."