Family occupy 'stolen' land at Kawhia

By Melissa Moxon

KAWHIA - A Maori family have occupied land near Kawhia that they claim the Crown stole through surveying trickery.

On Monday morning, Gareth Seymore and up to half a dozen supporters moved on to 6.2ha of grazing land in Waiwera St owned by the Otorohanga District Council.

He said the family had taken back land stolen from their ancestors, and did not intend to move.

"The British Government made it law that all land had to be surveyed.

"The amount of land that was surveyed in Kawhia was a trick. They knew the cost would have been unaffordable, so what an easy way to get it."

Yesterday, Mr Seymore and several others attended a council meeting at which the issue was discussed.

Chief executive David Hall said the council was generally sympathetic and a search was under way to find out the history of the land, which the Crown gave to the council in 1908.

"There is no [statutory] provision for us to give land back. We will possibly have to offer it back to the Crown at market value," he said. "We don't know how the Crown acquired it."

Mr Hall said the issue arose when the council advertised about three weeks ago that it was considering whether the land was surplus to requirements.

The council had given the family time to establish the land's history.

Constable Paul Francis, of Kawhia, said he had visited the protesters, who had put up a small tent. "There's no problem with them at this stage."

The family will meet the Kawhia Community Board tomorrow.

Mr Seymore is no stranger to protesting. In 1995 he was involved with the Te Toitutanga youth group's takeover of a Tainui radio talkback show to air arguments against the Tainui settlement.

In 1991, he complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority about the song I've Been Everywhere in a Telecom commercial, objecting to John Hore Grenell's mispronunciation of Maori place names.