Maori plan to show world NZ's 'myth'

By Ken Lewis

WAITANGI - Northland Maori will launch a campaign of land occupations in the Bay of Islands to coincide with the September Apec conference in Auckland.

Ngapuhi have threatened to begin the occupations then to highlight their unresolved claim to large tracts of the Bay of Islands.

The sites they have chosen include the Treaty House at Waitangi, the Waitangi golf course and privately owned land near Haruru Falls.

Ngapuhi rangatira Kingi Taurua said he wanted to show the world that harmonious race relations in New Zealand were a myth.

He would time the occupations to coincide with the 10-day Apec conference in an effort to embarrass the Government in front of the world's media.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Treaty Negotiations, Sir Douglas Graham, said land occupations were unlawful. It was Government policy not to negotiate with Maori involved in unlawful occupations.

The decision to go ahead with occupations was made on Saturday during a hui involving more than 100 Ngapuhi elders at Waitangi Marae.

Final details of the protest actions are still to be decided, but Mr Taurua said they could include rolling occupations lasting a few days before occupiers moved to another site.

He confirmed the tribe might also occupy privately owned land.

The three-year-old Watea housing estate, near Haruru Falls, is one site the tribe is considering.

The managing director of Watea Developments, Jeff Hopper, said his company had investigated titles on the land and was confident Ngapuhi had no legal claim to the site.

"It would be illegal for them to occupy Watea, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

He said the company had sold 35 of the 55 lots in the housing development.

The possibility of Ngapuhi mounting land occupations was first raised last month after the tribe was told the Waitangi Tribunal was unable to consider its land claim lodged last October.

Much of the claim involved land sold before 1840, when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. Legislation prevents the tribunal from considering claims arising from dealings predating the treaty.

Mr Taurua said the law meant the only option left to the tribe was to occupy the land it thought had been stolen from it.

He believed much of it was illegally bought by early missionaries and that Ngapuhi chiefs did not understand that the deals were permanent.

Descendants of the missionaries dispute that Maori were tricked. They say land sale documents show the transactions were honourable.