MAURI TUU! MAURI ORA!

Mana (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 13, 26 January 1978, Page 1

MAURI TUU! MAURI ORA!

by

Hineani Melbourne

Shortly after 3 p.m. on Wednesday. January 5. 1977, the first tents were erected at Takaparawha (Bastion Point). Two months later despite threats, vague promises, legal problems, adverse weather and a tragic death the

protesters remain.

Takaparawha spokesperson, Jack Rameka, says it only took six weeks for the Government to threaten physical eviction of the Ngati-Whatua on Bastion Point, while "on Rangitoto there are forty European houses on Crown land, which the Government has been unable to move for nine years, and it took them six years to move houses from Cornwallis. "The focus has been on us because of the high-value subdivisions which the Gov-

ernment planned. Fishing resorts, hunters huts, hotels, motels, these are all on Crown Land, but it seems only Europeans can do this because if it is Maoris they raise a stink." he says. Historically Ngati-Whatua has had a rough deal. In 1840 the capital was moved to the Waitemata at the request of Ngati-Whatua, who ceeded the Government 3,000 acres for which a total cash value of two hundred pounds was paid. From then land was acquired by the Government by

various means. Five acres, for instance, was given to the Crown in 1858 by Ngati-Whatua for a church site, burial grounds and a school, but were never used for these purposes. By 1869 the Native Land Court saw fit to declare 700 acres of Ngati-Whatua land “absolutely inalienable to any person in any manner whatsoever,” and placed the land under the trusteeship of thirteen persons. By 1898 the Crown decided that the original trustees were in fact owners and the land was placed under individual titles. Only 40 acres of the marae and area around it were declared inalienable. Most of the 700 acres had

been bought by the Crown in 1917 and 1928 saw the first sections auctioned by the Auckland City Council at high prices. By 1940 only 12 acres remained. Applications to the court for the return and preservation of the 40 acres only resulted in more land being sold to pay legal costs. The new National Government in 1950 announced that all remaining land except the church and cementary would be compulsorily acquired Ten acres were taken for housing and in 1951 the remaining 2 acres were taken for a reserve. By various means the people on the flat were induced to move off the

marae to state-rental houses on the hills. Says Joe Hawke, “there was one tap on the old pa for 400 people. We applied for permits to rebuild our homes but were refused as the Council said they could not pump our sewerage the seven feet required to get it to sea-level. After we left they built a sewerage station right where our kumara gardens were.” On December 1951 the Government and City Council razed the meeting house and other buildings on the marae. By 1952 the community's eviction was complete. The Orakei Maori Action Committee was formed in 1974 in an attempt to get back the land acquired by the Government, mostly, through the Public Works Act. Conflict came to a head in January 1977 when the first bulldozers were scheduled to start on the high-value housing sections.

“Everything that we are fighting for is the principle,” says Joe Hawke. At the moment preparations are being made for the injunction to decide through the courts who are the actual owners of the land. Joe Hawke claims that legally the Government owns the land but the Ngati-Whatua have the moral right of ownership.” The protesters have been denied legal aid twice and therefore intend to defend the case themselves, as they cannot afford a solicitor. Thirty-two interogatories (questions) have been accepted by the Court to be answered by the Crown. And if the Government wins the injunction, the protestors claim that it will be back to square one. “We have been here one year,” says Joe Hawke, “and we’ll still be here in five years if the land is not returned to the NgatiWhatua.”