Hapu occupiers round up stock on Far North farm

Hundreds of cattle and sheep on a big Far North farm block were yesterday being rounded up by a Maori group who say the farm land is theirs.

About 40 members of the Ngati Aukiwa hapu went to the 2275ha Stony Creek Station 12km south of Mangonui yesterday and erected signs, one of which proclaims hapu ownership of the property.

A spokesman for the hapu, Tamati Roha, told the Herald the station's sheep and cattle were being herded ready to be trucked away.

"They're not ours but they're on our property," he said.

The stock would be given away if necessary because the hapu was interested only in the land.

The station ran about 1500 head of cattle and 5000-odd sheep early this year during a previous occupation of part of the farm by Ngati Aukiwa, but Mr Roha said yesterday he believed stock numbers were fewer now.

At this stage, he said, hapu members would not physically occupy the property.

Shearers' quarters on the farm, occupied by the group for 49 days late last year and early this year after station staff were issued hapu-generated trespass notices, were deserted yesterday, as was the station's woolshed and adjacent holding paddocks.

A hapu sign on the woolshed told "uninvited persons" that they were trespassing on unextinguished native aboriginal title, 1835.

Police went to the farm yesterday to oversee station staff loading sheep on to a truck but left once the job had been completed without incident.

Stony Creek Station is held by the Office of Treaty Settlements (OTS) in Wellington on behalf of the Crown for use in eventual land claim settlements involving treaty claims by local Maori.

The former Landcorp property was landbanked for that purpose in 1995 but OTS has so far recognised only the mandate of another local group, Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board, in formal negotiations over the future of the station.

Police ended Ngati Aukiwa's occupation in February by evicting the group and arresting two of its leaders, Mr Roha and kaumatua Wilfred Petersen snr, on charges of trespass.

A judge in the Kaitaia District Court dismissed the charges, saying he was not satisfied police had proper authority to evict the occupiers.

But Judge David Wilson also said the property was held by the Queen for Crown land under the 1948 Land Act and the defendants' belief that they had rights of occupancy under unextinguished aboriginal title was based on an incorrect view of the law.

OTS spokesman Dean Cowie said yesterday the office was monitoring what was going on at the farm.

He was not aware of any major disruption to farming but the situation was being watched.

"When something happens, we'll take whatever steps we think appropriate to keep operations going."