TOP STORY: Sports grounds may go to Maori

One-third of Tauranga's sports grounds could be given to Maori as compensation for land grievances stretching back 140 years.
Tauranga City Council has found the Crown could own up to 42 hectares of the 128 hectares of council-administered sports parks.
Crown-owned land will go into the mix when the Government decides how to compensate Maori for the massive land confiscations following the Battle of Gate Pa in 1864.
The confusion over title to some sports grounds can be traced to local government reforms 15 years ago, when old domain boards were abolished.
It means city sports clubs including those on Tauranga Domain, Pemberton Park, Links Ave Reserve and most of Blake Park could end up renegotiating their leases with Maori tribes instead of the council.
Doubts about the ownership of seven city sports grounds emerged during yesterday's meeting of the tangata whenua/council joint committee.
The council is appointed to control or manage sports grounds - but this does not mean it owns them.
After the meeting, Mayor Stuart Crosby said the council needed to be assured that the public would have ongoing access to the grounds if they were to go to Maori ownership.
The council would also need assurances of management, although there could be an arrangement in which the control group included iwi representatives.
In September, a landmark report from the Waitangi Tribunal on Western Bay Maori land confiscation found Maori were justified in many of their grievances over the way they lost their land.
The 500-page report said the Crown should move quickly to settle 55 claims relating to 117,000ha. It said most of Tauranga, Mount Maunganui and Katikati was built on land unfairly taken from Maori.
Negotiations are already well advanced to hand Mauao back to Maori.
The council is hoping to clarify within six months whether the Crown owns the parks.
It is likely Tauranga Domain's 11ha and Gate Pa Domain's 5ha will revert to Crown ownership. Less certain, but likely, to be Crown-owned are Pemberton Park and Macville Park.
It is unclear what will happen to 19ha of Blake Park, comprising all the reserve except the area covered by the hockey grounds and a neighbouring undeveloped block along Totara St.
The council is also waiting for the Department of Conservation to decide on the status of half of Golf Rd Reserve and half of Links Ave Reserve.
Tangata whenua committee member Maru Tapsell raised the ownership issue yesterday by quoting American comedian Jimmy Durante, who said some people played a piano's white keys and some played the black keys, but he played a tune on the cracks.
Mr Tapsell said the cracks for him were the uncertainties around the ownership of some council parklands.
Crown-owned land would become part of the solution to the raupatu (confiscation) claims and it was likely that some of it would be the reserves identified in the management plan, he said.
The plan proposes to inject $7 million into Tauranga's 17 parks.
Hearings on public submissions take place in February, with the final plan to be adopted in April.
Costs are spread over 10 years but the real action takes place in the next four years when $5.6 million of spending is planned.
A 3.7ha reserve backing the Gate Pa bowling and tennis clubs is planned to eventually be developed into a Battle of Gate Pa heritage area.
Other plans include spending $335,000 to improve the Links Ave clubrooms, $215,000 for Wharepai Domain upgrades and $30,000 on Pemberton Park's clubhouse toilets and changing rooms.