Te Aupouri $21m settlement deal

Twenty-five years after the five Muriwhenua tribes filed Treaty of Waitangi grievance claims, one of them - Te Aupouri - will today clinch a $21 million-plus settlement deal with the Crown.

Treaty Negotiations Minister Chris Finlayson, Minister of Maori Affairs Pita Sharples and other Crown officials will be welcomed on to the Pohahi Marae at Te Kao, at 12.30pm.

At 2pm, they and iwi negotiators led by Te Runanga Nui o Te Aupouri chairman Raymond Subritzky will sign the deed of settlement. The many tribal leaders who have participated in negotiations since 1986, or relatives of those negotiators who have since died, will also sign.

Some of the 9333 Te Aupouri tribal members have returned to the Far North from as far as the South Island for the settlement ceremony.

A three-day festival to celebrate the historic occasion began at Te Kao yesterday.

Two other Muriwhenua - now known as Te Hiku Forum - tribes could follow suit soon. Te Rarawa this week began taking their initialled deed of settlement to iwi members for ratification and Ngai Takoto are poised to start the same process.

Crown negotiations with a fourth tribe, Ngati Kuri, are still in progress and the fifth tribe, Ngati Kahu, has applied to the Waitangi Tribunal seeking binding recommendations for tribal ownership of government-owned land.

The Crown hopes to see legislation covering the five Te Hiku settlement agreements - including collective redress covering issues like co-governance of Ninety Mile Beach - put through Parliament at the same time. Collective redress will be available to Te Hiku iwi as they complete settlements.

Te Aupouri's individual settlement includes $21 million to buy the Crown-owned Te Raite and Cape View farms, part of Te Kao School and a landbanked property at Te Kao.

Te Aupouri will also receive a cultural redress fund of $380,000 to help the tribe undertake projects of cultural significance.

Eleven properties will be vested in Te Aupouri, and seven jointly vested in Te Aupouri and one or more other Te Hiku iwi. The 18 properties total about 1369ha.

Under the collective redress elements of the deed, Te Aupouri, Te Rarawa, Ngai Takoto and Ngati Kuri will jointly own the 21,283ha Crown forest land on the Aupouri peninsula and will receive a share of the accumulated rentals - about $2.2 million to each iwi. Te Aupouri will receive a 30 per cent share of Crown forest land on the peninsula.

Nineteen geographic names will be altered through the Te Aupouri settlement, including giving Ninety Mile Beach its traditional Maori name, Te Oneroa-a-Tohe. The settlement will create the Te Oneroa-a-Tohe Board to manage the beach - a new permanent joint committee with 50 per cent iwi members and the other half from the Northland Regional and Far North District councils.

There will be no restrictions on public access to the beach. The Crown is providing a one-off contribution of $137,500 per iwi to install interpretative signs, raise pouwhenua at Waipapakauri and fund regeneration activities along the beach.