Thee latest letter to the editor.
Re the letter Ancestral Lands (14/4/15), I would like to enlighten Jane Tana that Maori are New Zealand citizens and as such have all the rights and responsibilities of that citizenship, which includes paying rates.
She can live the "idyllic" lifestyle if she wishes but she should not
expect fellow New Zealanders to subsidise her rates or those of Maori ancestral land.
The fact is British property laws gave tribes title to their lands which prevented the loss of these lands to another tribe by the law of the club.
New Zealand has a total land area of 26.8 million hectares, 1.2 million hectares were confiscated during 1860s sovereignty wars, the bulk of which was returned to Maori shortly thereafter via compensation commissions.
There is currently around 1.47 million hectares of Maori land, including customary land.
The wicked white coloniser did not "take" land and natural resources from Maori as Jane Tana claims.
