Iwi win $5m redress for historic low rent

An iwi trust that administers Maori land around Motueka has been given $5 million to compensate it for past losses for below-market rents.

The Ngati Rarua Atiawa Trust (NRAIT) and Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples signed a memorandum of understanding at Parliament yesterday which acknowledged the losses from unfair perpetual leases that had been administered by the trust's predecessor, the Whakarewa School Trust.

Other Maori reserve land owners had been compensated in 2002 for similar arrangements but the trust had missed out because it was not administered in the same way.

The trust was formed in 1993 in part to redress the issue of mismanagement of 371 hectares of Ngati Rarua Atiawa iwi's land near Motueka that the Anglican Church acquired in 1853 under Governor George Grey.

"The payment will boost the trust's financial ability to better manage and develop the Whakarewa lands," said Dr Sharples. "It will not change any leasing arrangements the Ngati Rarua Atiawa Iwi Trust have with their lessees."

He said the payment to the trust and its beneficiaries would bring economic benefits to the wider community.

"I mihi to [greet] the descendants of the original owners and hope that they can now move forward and reap the benefits that this payment will bring," he said.

The payment is not a treaty settlement.

In 2003, NRAIT chairman Paul Morgan told Wakatu Incorporation shareholders that NRAIT was due just under $9m to compensate it for historic under-market rents.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Newest First

Oldest First