Formal handover of Treelord deal assets underway

Ngati Manawa representatives Ema Kalman and Maurice Toetoe signing the Central North Island Deed at Parliament last year. The official handover of assets is taking place near Turangi today. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Minister for Treaty Negotiations says today's handover of almost half a billion dollars of forestry assets provides a significant resource base for iwi in the central North Island.

The Treelord deal involves more than $280 million in cash and 176 thousand hectares of land and is the biggest Treaty of Waitangi settlement in history.

The settlement over the Kaingaroa forest area in June last year made Maori the largest forestry owners in New Zealand.

The handover to eight iwi is taking place at the Hirangi Marae, near Turangi, and began with a traditional powhiri.

The ceremony was to have been held at Waihi Marae, the ancestral home of Ngati Tuwharetoa, but a series of earthquakes and heavy rain last week raised fears of a landslide and forced the evacuation of Waihi Village.

Sixty people, including paramount chief Te Heuheu Tukino II, were killed in the village after a landslide in 1846.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson says political parties have recognised the importance of settling historical grievances with just and durable settlements.

Deputy Prime Minister Bill English, the Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples and Mr Finlayson are at the ceremony.

- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB