Waitutu Maori Land
An adjacent 2171 hectares of forest, owned by the Waitutu Incorporation, has also been placed under national park management though ownership remains with Maori. This is one of the plots of land set aside under the South Island Landless Natives Act in 1906, to compensate Maori who had lost their lands. Most of this land was unfit for farming without huge capital investment, nor could it support Maori people in their traditional way of life. Waitutu was also several hundred miles outside the tribal territory of some of the people it was allocated to, and the allotments were never taken up. The descendants of some of those beneficiaries eventually formed the Waitutu Incorporation and several times announced their intention to log their forest. An agreement for the land to be managed as if it were part of the Fiordland National Park was guided through Parliament in 1997, by the Minister of Conservation, Dr Nick Smith, who said it was a unique way for the Crown and Maori to work together.
— Tom O’Connor
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/FORBI19990201.2.10.2
Bibliographic details
Forest and Bird, Issue 291, 1 February 1999, Page 8
Word Count
175Waitutu Maori Land Forest and Bird, Issue 291, 1 February 1999, Page 8
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