A Nelson-based group of companies has filed a High Court claim against the Crown on behalf of some families seeking compensation to restore the shortfall in the historic "Tenth Reserves."
Wakatu Incorporation is suing the Crown for claimed brea
A Nelson-based group of companies has filed a High Court claim against the Crown on behalf of some families seeking compensation to restore the shortfall in the historic "Tenth Reserves."
Wakatu Incorporation is suing the Crown for claimed breaches of fiduciary duty, trust and good faith in its dealings with the owners of the Tenths land – a case with its roots in the New Zealand Company's promise in the 1840s that it would reserve and hold in trust for Maori one-tenth of the land acquired for settlers.
For 120 years the reserves were administered on behalf of their owners by trustees but in 1977, the government folded 26,000ha held in 2087 perpetually renewable leases – in Greymouth, Nelson, Motueka, Wellington, Palmerston North and southern Taranaki – into new owner organisations and enabled them to charge market rents.
In Nelson and Motueka, Wakatu represents the descendents of the original 254 owners of Nelson, Motueka and Golden Bay, who were told that a tenth of the land for European settlement would be reserved in trust.
Maori were awarded their pa, burial grounds and gardens, and one-tenth of the 61,000ha initially awarded to the New Zealand Company but the company negotiated for more land and ended up with at least 69,600ha. Later maps showed as much as 182.000ha may have been taken, the incorporation claims.
James Wheeler, a spokesman for the Maori descendents of the original landowners, said today the Crown abused its position as trustee of the lands and was "unjustly enriched" through the shortfall in the Tenths allocations, when it received the balance of the New Zealand Company land after its collapse.
By 1850 only 1599ha were set aside as Tenths Reserves, and only 658ha of that remained by the time Wakatu Incorporation was set up in 1977.
