Trust land won back 162 years later

DEEP HISTORY: Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhio at the Otamataha Mission Cemetery on Marsh St says the return reconnects hapu with an important part of their past.PHOTO/RUTH KEBER

Prime waterfront real estate hosting Tauranga's largest hotel and a historic cemetery have been returned to local Maori.

The Trinity Wharf hotel on Dive Cres and Otamataha Mission Cemetery on Marsh St are part of a 7863sq m block of land transferred from the New Zealand Mission Trust to the Otamataha Trust - the hapu of Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho.

The return of the land came after the passing of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill led by Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell in Parliament on Wednesday.

Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi chairman Charlie Tawhio said the return of the land was significant for local hapu whose ancestors lived and died there.

"Otamataha was the pa and of course and it has a very deep history for the people here ... especially for these hapu. It is a connection and link that is part of their history; that had a profound impact on them."

Mr Tawhio said it was important the transfer was not just seen as the Otamataha Trust taking over the hotel lease.

"From what I understand there is no intention of walking in and saying 'right, we are taking over'."

Mr Tawhio said the return spoke of Tauranga's history as a bicultural city.

Otamataha trustee Peri Kohu said one of the most significant parts of the bill was that they were now able to change the beneficiaries of the original trust deed from "evangelisation of the heathens throughout the world" to local hapu Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho.

Mr Kohu acknowledged the land was prime real estate "but the return was more significant than the size of the land".

"We are overjoyed at Parliament's support, to have the return and the trustees changed."

Mr Kohu was part of Parliament's sittings, having travelled to Wellington with fellow trustees Des Tata, Puhirake Ihaka, and legal representative Alan Tate. The Otamatea Trust collects ground rent from the hotel.

Money from the rents would likely be used in the same way other collective monies such as Treaty of Waitangi funds have been by iwi and hapu - by providing scholarships for young Maori and healthcare for elderly, Mr Tawhio said.

The final step from the bill involves discharging the trustees of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board.

Mr Flavell said the change would "unshackle the hapu of Ngati Tapu and Ngai Tamarawaho".

"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," Mr Flavell said.

"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 metered out to those so-called natives, those heathens, for the battles at Te Ranga and Pukehinahina," he said. In speech notes from earlier this month, Mr Flavell said: "At the time, 1852, no doubt the Church Missionary Society had noble intentions and indeed many of the submissions noted that although the church and its missionaries brought what they described as 'many good things to the tangata whenua of Tauranga' the so-called purchase of land . . . was never regarded by Maori as giving up their rights to the land."