Brian Rudman: No-tree hill victim of over-correction

It's two years since I suggested that there might be better ways of wasting ratepayers' money than looking after a summit tree on One Tree Hill.

My outburst followed a report that $557,842 was spent on life support for the 120-year-old pine between the first chain-saw attack in October 1994 and the tree's removal six years later.

The report also forecast that a replacement would cost ratepayers a further $40,000 a year in maintenance, security and monitoring.

A quick glance at the summit of Maungakiekie will show I've got my way. For the time being anyway.

But to be honest, the absence of a replacement tree has had nothing to do with me. It's all to do with bicultural correctness gone ever so slightly overboard.

Getting a replacement tree or trees to grow on the bleak windswept peak was always going to be something of a miracle.

The departed 120-year-old pine had itself been that. It was the surviving remnant of a shelter belt planted to guard more delicate natives. All succumbed to the elements except the runty pine.

After its demise, council staff came up with a plan - after much consultation - for a group planting of pohutukawa and totara. The hope was that out of that mix, a mighty totara icon might arise.

The ideal planting time was to be between April and June to let the trees become established before summer.

But horticultural realities were not the only cultural obstacles the trees faced. They also had to get through the cultural correctness clauses of the Resource Management Act.

A tangata whenua advisory team was established "to ensure that the new planting is carried out with appropriate protocol to respect Maori values".

As well, a city council report revealed that "an opportunity has been identified to 'heal' the grievance that tangata whenua hold in respect of the previous pine and celebrate the re-birth of the mauri/wairua still present on the maunga".

After much planning and consulting, a dawn ceremony was arranged for a day last June, in which Mayor John Banks and dignitaries from various Maori and Pakeha tribes were to gather to plant the trees.

It was all go, the gilt invitations dispatched, the sticky buns ordered and the tea urns dusted down.

Then down from Bastion Pt swept Ngati Whatua supremo and Orakei Maori Trust Board chairman Sir Hugh Kawharu with a bombshell.

He and his people would not be attending the tree planting.

To be fair, he did tell Mayor Banks to carry on as though nothing had changed. But that would have been a bit like continuing the wedding after the bride had done a runner, so the festivities were called off.

As for the poor little seedlings, they went back to the nursery.

Sir Hugh had, at the last moment, decided that with his tribe's Treaty of Waitangi claim over the whole Auckland isthmus pending, it wasn't a good look for him and his people to be seen sharing the stage with representatives of the Pakeha occupants of the land, or with other Maori claiming tangata whenua status.

The planting ceremony involved trees being planted by, among others, the mayor and representatives of the Crown, Ngati Whatua and rival iwi.

Sir Hugh thought such "power sharing" could be seen as a Ngati Whatua concession that the other participants had some rights of ownership over Maungakiekie.



How long a resolution is going to take is anyone's guess. Council arborists are certainly not holding their breath. They plan to strike more cuttings from the hardy trees they chose for the first crop, in case those first seedlings become too large for planting.

One thing seems certain. There will be no tree planting this winter. Unless, that is, the politicians take Sir Hugh at his word, and go ahead without him.

To me, it's not a big issue. The pine I grew up with has gone. If anything replaces it, it will be the next generation's icon, not mine. But I accept many people do want a substitute. So why not plant one and be done with it. If he felt the need, the mayor could always toast absent friends and raise his glass in the direction of Bastion Pt.

Sir Hugh said go ahead without him. If we are going to do it, why not get on with it?

Herald Feature: The tree on the hill