Marae backing ousted leader

Maori King Tuheitia Paki. Photo / Rotorua Daily Post.

A small Ngati Maniapoto marae that rejected King Tuheitia's request to dismiss its representative is holding its line.

Last week Hiiona Marae was asked to remove Tania Martin as its representative to Te Kauhanganui, Waikato-Tainui's tribal parliament, which she chairs.

It is holding a special meeting either today or tomorrow to discuss options.

Yesterday, interim marae chairman Boyd Katipa, Ms Martin's brother, told the Weekend Herald the marae was "sticking to our guns," because due process had to be followed.

"We went to see the King. Our position hasn't changed since we last met."

Ms Martin's status as chairwoman is up in the air after Tuheitia used his position as paramount King to dismiss her on Monday, despite the marae telling him it preferred Te Kauhanganui's dispute resolution process to be used.

The shambles exists because besides the marae's stance, a concurrent mediation process is to be completed by next Friday at the same time as the King has said Ms Martin is gone despite there being no specific provision for him to remove a chairperson under Te Kauhanganui's rules.

Mr Katipa said the ensuing fallout was a difficult thing for loyal kingitanga followers from the marae to comprehend.

"We're still staunch for the kingitanga but we told the King we'd like the disputes [procedure] to handle it, to take the heat off our kaumatua and kuia. It was a hard discussion."

Ms Martin tabled a report at the tribe's last Te Kauhanganui meeting criticising the amount of money the tribe was spending on governance.

She estimated it to be $2.5 million for the full financial year.

The King and tribal executive board chairman Tuku Morgan have said Ms Martin's figures were overblown by $1.1 million.

The tribe receives a dividend from its commercial arm - this year's was $10.5 million - which is spent on marae, education grants, kauhanganui and Te Arataura executive board expenses.

Ms Martin shone a light on anomalies such as a $10,000 hardship grant to board member Rahui Papa after his house burned down when a policy for such a payment did not exist. It does now.

Ms Martin has not responded to Herald calls, but says she stands by her report.

Yesterday, Mr Morgan would not be drawn on whether there was a possibility of a special session of Te Kauhanganui to sort out the issue before the scheduled February session.

He said the clash had caused "some huge damage and embarrassment and shame".