Land Grab Unacceptable

A recent decision by independent commissioners finding against the Hastings District Council building the Northern Arterial Route linking Havelock North with the Napier Hastings Expressway sends a clear message to the council. Using local government powers to grab land is unacceptable and it that land is owned by Maori it is especially unacceptable.

Two years ago the same council lead by the same mayor proposed using the Public Works Act to take ownership of the road leading to Ocean Beach. Access over the road was never an issue so the action seems unnecessarily provocative, but probably had more to do with the councils involvement in the proposal for major beach subdivision.

New Zealand's short 200 year European history started with minimal impact on Maori when sealer's and whalers setting up camp in the inhospitable deep south. In 1840 organised migrations by the New Zealand Company saw a huge increase in settlers. British officials signed a treaty with Maori stating amongst other things the rights of Maori to retain their lands. Unquestionably it was a genuine effort to preserve their rights whilst establishing conditions suitable for European type settlement. Of course the advantage lay with the settlers because they controlled the process, were accustomed to a formal legal system and had a written language to record the details of the agreement.

Over time the spirit of the agreement was overlooked, ignored or forgotten and some fairly unscrupulous actions were used to wrench ownership of land from tribal owners. Whilst Maori often objected to these actions they were always powerless to stop the process.

By 1975 there was a concerted move for compensations highlighted by a protest hikoi from the far north home to Wellington led by 80 year old Dame Whina Cooper. Ultimately this led to the establishment of a formal treaty settlement process intended to investigate and compensate for the unlawful loss of lands. The cost already is more than $1 billion.

So what has all this to do with the recent actions of the Hastings District Council. Well in the light of history it seems totally inappropriate that the Mayor and Councillors of the Hastings District Council keep trying to repeat the wrong doings of our forebears 150 or more years ago. Do we really want to burden for our descendants with new claims some time in the future?

That $1.8 million has been spent on this project, much in recent years when the issue was already heading to court is astonishing. Better judgement might have seen the writing on the wall before significant funds were committed.