Hokitika jade raid nets millions

Police seized millions of dollars worth of jade from two Hokitika businesses yesterday and warn they will target more premises in their crackdown on the blackmarket in stolen pounamu from Haast.

The Jade Factory and its subsidiary Mountain Jade were raided by 12 police and Ngai Tahu investigators looking specifically for "snowflake" pounamu, which is only found on the Cascade Plateau, south of Haast - an area that has never been legally mined.

In 2005 and 2007, helicopter pilots Harvey Hutton and then Dave and Morgan Saxton were prosecuted and later convicted of stealing large quantities of the valuable jewellery grade stone, the legal property of Ngai Tahu.

West Coast police area commander Inspector John Canning today estimated the value of the one and a half tonnes of pounamu seized from Hokitika at millions of dollars.

The seized goods ranged from raw rock to boxes and boxes of pendants and carvings.

One standout carving, with a price tag of $80,000, and another at $45,000, are now in police custody.

The Jade Factory owner John Sheehan, of Hamilton, declined to comment, but said he would put out a press release "in a day or two".

The business was open today.

Mr Canning said there was a lot of snowflake pounamu already on the market, and the two outlets searched yesterday were not the only ones involved.

Internet websites, including Trade Me, carried plenty of listings for the allegedly stolen stone.

He said pounamu experts were helping police identify where the stone came from, and geologists would be used in court cases.

No arrests had been made so far and the investigation, which had been planned for some time, was expected to continue.

Respected Hokitika jade carver Bernie Radomski, who helped establish Westland Greenstone Ltd as the first jade business in Hokitika in the early 1960s, said although they had a good supply of stone, the market for legitimate pounamu was "tight".

"It's getting so scarce now I've had a bunch of young Maori guys, young carvers, who can't get stone. (Ngai Tahu) need to start supplying the market."

Mr Radomski said he had been approached by people selling snowflake pounamu in the past, but not recently.

The ownership of all pounamu was vested in Ngai Tahu in 1997, and is valued by Maori for much more than its economic worth. For hundreds of years it has been used to make tools, weapons and adornments and has a life force, or mauri.

"People need to help us support the legal and sustainable sale of pounamu so that we can ensure this precious resource is still here in the future," Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon said.

"Only this way can we guarantee the long-term viability of the pounamu industry and its worth to the local economy.

"This action today is part of continued legal efforts to ensure the trade in pounamu is legally and sustainably managed. Ngai Tahu will continue to work closely with police to ensure illegal trade in pounamu declines and eventually halts."

All Ngai Tahu authenticated pounamu carries a registered trademark and a unique trace-ability code, that when entered on-line, identifies the origin and whakapapa (geneaology) of the stone, how it was extracted and processed, and who the artist was who carved it.

Te Runanga o Makaawhio deputy chairman Terry Scott said a lot of effort had gone into developing improved processes for the ongoing sale and supply of pounamu, which was "just becoming operational".

- NZPA