Fences cut on disputed Far North farm block

By TONY GEE

Up to 5km of boundary and internal fencing has been deliberately destroyed on a large Far North farm block under Maori claim.

The farm manager estimates repairing the weekend damage would take months and cost between $30,000 and $50,000.

"And even if it's all fixed, who's to say it won't happen again," Stony Creek Station manager John Marks said yesterday.

"These people have just gone crazy. The farm's almost destroyed.

"We've got about 300km of fences on the property. There's no way we can combat something like this."

The station runs between 1700 and 1800 cattle and calves, and 7000 sheep, on 2275ha.

Far North police were at Stony Creek last month to oversee the movement of cattle after a group of Maori claimants ignored Office of Treaty Settlement requests to remove their stock from the property.

Police were back on the station on Friday, when animal control officers impounded nine yearlings belonging to the claimant hapu, and arrested three men on trespass charges.

The former Landcorp cattle and sheep property, about 10km south of Mangonui, was landbanked in 1995 by the Office of Treaty Settlement for potential use by local Maori claimants under a Treaty of Waitangi settlement.

It is within the rohe (district) of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa and Government ministers have recognised the mandate of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board to represent local Maori in negotiating a settlement of their historic land claims in the area.

The farm block is a large part of the claim, but a group within Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa, under the hapu name Ngati Aukiwa, oppose the board's mandate.

The hapu objects to its claims being included in Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa negotiations with the settlement office and the Crown.

Ngati Aukiwa moved stock on to station paddocks in August in protest at the office negotiations with the trust board over the future of Stony Creek.

The animals were withdrawn, but were back on the station after gates were removed and chains cut, an office spokeswoman said last month when police were first called to the farm.

An upset Mr Marks said yesterday the situation now was beyond a joke.

"The true claimants need to know what's going on. There's months of work to fix the cut fences and my advice to the Office of Treaty Settlements is to sell the farm's stock and get out."

Station workers had been out yesterday checking for stock wandering over cut fencelines on to Stony Creek and other roads, but Mr Marks said all the stock appeared to be on the property.

Mangonui police senior constable George Makene said fences along a road boundary had been cut in many places.

"It wasn't just cut. Some fencelines have been pulled out, with cut wire lying on the ground."

He said at least 3km had been cut.

Kaitaia police Senior Sergeant Gordon Gunn said the three men arrested on Friday for trespass been bailed by the district court to appear again on November 27.

One of them also faces cannabis-related and firearms offences after police searched his property near Taupo Bay.

Office of Treaty Settlements acting manager for policy and negotiations, Esther King, said the fence attack would not change the process being worked through with mandated claimants Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. Formal negotiation terms had yet to be signed.