Te Rūnanga-ā-Iwi o Ngāti Kahu
Land Claims Report for March 2014
1. Appeal to the Supreme Court on Te Ana o Taite – out of court settlement proposal has been received
2. Ngāti Kahu Trust Board Agrees to Settle Their Litigation Against Ngāti Kahu Mortgage Services Ltd
3. Offer from Crown to fully and finally extinguish Ngāti Kahu’s claims
4. Work on publication of the Ngāti Kahu Deed of Partial Settlement continues
5. Judicial Review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Report – on-going
6. Crown Trying to Steal Ngāti Kahu’s Forestry Rentals
Summary:
Carrington Farms’ new owners, Shanghai Cred, have agreed not to build on Te Ana o Taite as part of their proposal for an out of court settlement.
Our Rūnanga lawyers are carrying out the legal work needed to implement the agreement by the Ngāti Kahu Trust Board to settle the litigation it took in the High Court against Ngāti Kahu Mortgage Services Ltd.
A final decision on the Crown’s offer awaits the response of several marae.
Work on preparing our Deed of Partial Settlement for publication was slow this month because I was overseas.
The application to the High Court for a judicial review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s refusal to issue binding recommendations or to review the deeds of settlement of Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto is still being prepared.
We are continuing to investigate the Crown’s threat to steal our Crown Forestry rentals.
1. Appeal to the Supreme Court on Te Ana o Taite – out of court settlement proposal has been received
A few days ago we received a proposal from Carrington Farms’ new owners, Shanghai Cred, to settle out of court the legal action we have taken against the company. As part of that proposal they have agreed not to build on Te Ana o Taite. This is a huge relief. In return they ask that we support their development. There are a number of other proposals addressing each of the matters we raised with them in our meeting of 28 January, some of which are very interesting. We will discuss them in our Rūnanga hui on 29 March.
2. Ngāti Kahu Trust Board Agrees to Settle Their Litigation Against Ngāti Kahu Mortgage Services Ltd
Following on from the Ngāti Kahu Trust Board’s agreement in principle to settle their litigation out of court, our lawyers have been drafting up the necessary documentation to implement the settlement. This includes drafting the trust deed for the new Ngāti Kahu Taipā Farm Trust which will take over ownership of our farm at Taipā. The trustees of the new trust will be appointed by each of our 15 marae.
3. Offer from Crown to fully and finally extinguish Ngāti Kahu’s claims
We are waiting on the response of several marae before we make a decision on the Crown’s offer.
4. Work on publication of the Ngāti Kahu Deed of Partial Settlement continues
Work on this was slow this month because I was overseas.
5. Judicial Review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s Report – on-going
The application to the High Court for a judicial review of the Waitangi Tribunal’s refusal to issue binding recommendations or to review the deeds of settlement of Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto has had considerable work done on it but still needs more work to complete it for filing.
6. Crown Trying to Steal Ngāti Kahu’s Forestry Rentals
We have been investigating the threat made by the Office of Treaty Settlements to have our share of the accumulated rentals held by the Crown Forestry Rental Trust transferred to the Public Trust until Ngāti Kahu agrees to fully and finally settle all our claims. The Crown Forestry Rental Trust is aware that we are vehemently opposed to this course of action.
We are experiencing difficulties getting information from the Public Trust Office. If this continues, we will refer the matter to the Ombudsman as directed at our last hui.
Professor Margaret Mutu