[news] NZ capital 'built on stolen land'

[Pat S]

NZ capital 'built on stolen land'

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/05/17/nz.maori.ap/index.html



WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- New Zealand's capital, Wellington, is built 
on land stolen from its indigenous Maori owners in the mid-19th century, a 
government-funded report said Saturday.

The report found some 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) of land was illegally 
taken from six Maori tribes, often through the use of fraudulent deeds.

Tribal descendants stand to receive tens of millions of dollars in 
compensation and the return of some of their lost land.

The government welcomed the report, which "sets the scene for (grievance) 
settlement negotiations to get under way," said Treaty Negotiations Minister 
Margaret Wilson.

She said "real and significant grievances are being recognized and settled 
peacefully within the law."

Wellington, a city of 400,000 on the southern tip of New Zealand's north 
Island, is home to the nation's Parliament and many other government 
buildings.

Colonists who began settling the area in 1839 took land using a deed that 
"was invalid, conferring no (ownership) rights" on the settlers, a statement 
from the Waitangi Tribunal said.

The tribunal issues reports on Maori grievances arising from the nation's 
founding treaty between Maori and European settlers, the 1840 Treaty of 
Waitangi.

Saturday's report, presented to local Maori, found that the treaty rights of 
Maori tribes of the area -- the Te Atiawa, Ngati Toa, Ngati Tama, Ngati 
Rangitahi Taranaki and Ngati Ruanui -- had been breached.

The report catalogues a series of land seizures, illegal documents, forced 
evictions and broken promises by settlers and the government of the time.

It said that Maori rights to their villages, gardens, burial grounds and 
native reserves were never adequately protected, as required under the 
treaty.

For example, the government set aside 48,600 hectares (120,000 acres) for 
Maoris in 1847, but a year later transferred the land's ownership to the New 
Zealand Company, which settled the Wellington area.

Maori owners received no compensation for the land, the tribunal said.

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