A local bill sponsored by Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell would transfer the Tauranga land. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Parliament will today amend a century-old trust which was set up to convert Maori to Christianity and evangelise to "heathen races'' all over the world. The New Zealand Mission Trust is a remnant of the first missionaries to visit New Zealand in the early 19th century, and held disputed land
in central Tauranga which local Maori were now seeking to retain possession of.
The Church Mission Society bought two large blocks of land in Te Papa in 1838, which has now become the heart of Tauranga City.
Around 80 per cent of this land was gifted to the Crown 14 years later.
Near the end of the century, some of it was transferred to the New Zealand Mission Trust. The trust held the assets "for the spiritual benefit and spiritual instruction of Maori people in the North Island of New Zealand or failing that, the evangelisation of heathen races in any part of the world''.
The purchase of the land has never been accepted by local Maori, and its subsequent gifting to the Crown has since been found to be in breach of Treaty of Waitangi principles.
