'Native' land debate intensifies

Fuel has been poured on a skirmish between a Maori trust and the Masterton District Council after the discovery of a letter suggesting a piece of land should be taken "without compensation to the natives".
Makirikiri Trust is asking the council to return a small Mauriceville gravel reserve that is part of 360ha taken from Wairarapa Maori by local authorities.
The trust's request has been given fresh impetus after the discovery of a letter written by an engineer in 1888, asking surveying authorities whether the reserve was owned by "natives" and if it could be claimed for the council.
Cr Edwin Perry, chairman of the council's Maori liaison committee, said the letter was further evidence the land was wrongly taken and the council should return it or offer compensation. While he wasn't a "land grabber", he said if the land was returned it raised the question of whether other council land should also be returned.
He said that would satisfy the community, which had been demanding justice since the Times-Age ran a story about the gravel reserve a month ago. "I have people ring up and say, 'Hell, that's disgusting, if that was taken, well somehow you've got to find resolution to tidy it up'."
Masterton District Council chief executive Wes ten Hove has told the Makirikiri Trust that, besides the engineer's letter, the council had no further letters or records of how the land came into the possession of authorities at the time. The council's lawyers say the land may have been government in which case it wouldn't be up to the council to return it. The letter has been forwarded to councillors and council officers are talking to government representatives about who owns the land.
Masterton Mayor Garry Daniell said it was too early to say whether the council would give the land back. "There's a lot more research to be done first before any conclusion can be reached and by the look of things it could be the Crown who makes the decision."
Mr Daniell changed his earlier stance that returning the land might set a precedent and said each claim would have to be settled on a case-by-case basis.
The reserve was gazetted on May 11, 1889, and has passed through the hands of local authorities as their names and boundaries changed since that time.
The reserve was originally owned by the Wairarapa North County Council and then passed to the Mauriceville County Council, the Masterton County Council, and finally the Masterton District Council.