Last Wednesday Parliament was due to amend a century-old trust deed of a trust that was set up to assist in the conversion of Maori to Christianity.
The amendment will allow the return of land in central Tauranga to the local hapu.
The land is owned by The New Zealand Mission Trust, a remnant of the first Christian missionaries to visit New Zealand.
Local Maori have disputed the Trust’s ownership and have for some time been trying to regain possession of it.
The private member’s bill, The New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill 2013 sponsored by the Maori Party co leader, Te Ururoa Flavell, transfers the Tauranga land – around 8000 sq m – to a new organisation, the Otamataha Trust, which is run by members of Bay of Plenty hapu Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho.
The Church Mission Society bought two large blocks of land in Te Papa in 1838, which has now become the heart of Tauranga City.
Around 80 per cent of this land was gifted to the Crown 14 years later.
Near the end of the century, some of it was transferred to the New Zealand Mission Trust.
The trust held the assets “for the spiritual benefit and spiritual instruction of Maori people in the North Island of New Zealand or failing that, the evangelisation of heathen races in any part of the world”.
Source
- New Zealand Herald
- Image: Mark Mitchell