This page last modified 16 September 1999
Treaty of Waitangi & Maori claims
Principle
of 'Partnership'
Government is on the brink of
giving a nationally important recreation area to a private developer.
The Greenstone, Caples and upper Mararoa valleys, and surrounding
mountain lands near Queenstown, are close to being given to the
Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board. Ironically the injustice this would
create for most New Zealanders would be in breach of the Treaty
of Waitangi. Private ownership or control has the potential to
restrict access to only those willing and able to pay entry or
user charges. It would also give impetus to the privatisation
of South Island's high country pastoral leasehold lands for tourism
purposes. This simply cannot be allowed to happen.
The valleys are nationally and internationally acclaimed tramping,
fishing and hunting areas.
Public Access New Zealand believes that the only way to secure
public use of these outstanding places is to add them to adjoining
national park and conservation areas. PANZ also believes that
Government should be using state-owned enterprise lands for settlement
of proven aspects of Ngai Tahu's land claims rather than unrelated
areas of high public interest such as the Greenstone Valley.
"Hands off the Greenstone Valley" is a message directed
at Government.
Tipene O'Regan on Ngai Tahu land claims
"The Ngai Tahu claim was not based on the Treaty, but on the Pakeha law of contract...in the South Island there was a breach of contract" (Tipene O'Regan, Chairman Ngai Tahu Maori Trust Board, The Press, 11/6/93).
"[The Otago Fish and Game Council] is also quite correct in stating...that the Greenstone etc. pastoral leases are not the subject of a proven (specific) grievance, and are thus not lands wrongfully taken which should be returned. Unfortunately for Fish and Game, that does not snuff out Ngai Tahu's legal interest. This area was subject to land sales contracts where the Crown was obliged to set aside one tenth of the land sold, and failed to ("reserves not awarded"). There is therefore justice in the Crown buying the land as it became available, with the cost for deduction from any settlement with Ngai Tahu" (Mountain Scene 4/11/93).
NOTE: The Ngai Tahu Trust Board only claimed before the Waitangi Tribunal that it was entitled to 'Tenths' under the Otakou (greater Dunedin) purchase. The Tribunal found that there was no such legal obligation on the Crown. All the lands supposed to be reserved to Ngai Tahu were in lowland and coastal locations between Kaikoura and Southland. The Tribunal confirmed that all the South Island high country was legally purchased by the Crown.
The area was purchased by the Crown under the 'Kemp' and 'Murihiku' agreements (extracts below)--
Kemp Deed
(Canterbury, inland Otago)
12 June 1848
Know all men. We the Chiefs and people of the tribe called the
"Ngaitahu" who have signed our names & made our
marks to this Deed on this 12th day of June 1848, do consent to
surrender entirely & for ever to William Wakefield the Agent
of the New Zealand Company...the whole of the lands...(the condition
of, or understanding of this sale is this) that our places of
residence & plantations are to [be] left for our own use,
for the use of our Children, & to those who may follow after
us, & when the lands shall be properly surveyed hereafter,
we leave to the Government the power & discretion of making
us additional Reserves of land, it is understood however that
the land itself with these small exceptions becomes the entire
property of the white people for ever.
We receive as payment Two Thousand Pounds...
Murihiku Deed
(Southland)
7 August 1853
Let all the Nations know. We
the chiefs and all the people of all the lands lying within the
boundaries hereunder written, derived through our ancestors from
whom it descended to us...have written our names and marks as
the act of consent of us, for ourselves, for our relations, for
our families, for our heirs now living, and our descendants who
shall be born after us, entirely to give up all those our lands
which have been negotiated for, the boundaries of which have been
described...to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, her heirs
and successors for ever, as a lasting possession for her or for
the Europeans...
And whereas we have agreed entirely to give up our land within
the boundaries hereunder...the Commissioner for extinguishing
Native Claims...agrees that he will pay us the sum of two thousand
pounds sterling...
Now these are the boundaries of the land which have been alienated;
...[and] all the lands within those boundaries, with the anchorages
and landing places, with the rivers, the lakes, the woods, and
the bush, with all things whatsoever within those places, and
in all things lying thereupon.
All the lands, and all other things above enumerated, and which
lie within the boundaries above recited, have been entirely surrendered
to Her Majesty the Queen for ever and ever.
"As subjects of the Crown...all New Zealanders have rights under the Treaty" Hon. Doug Graham, Otago Daily Times, 31 March 1993.
"...the Crown would want to ensure that any transfer to Maori of any Crown-owned asset would not directly prejudice any third party, including the New Zealand public, since any further injustice would also be in breach of the Treaty" Hon. Doug Graham 17 August 1992.
In 1992, at the request of Ngai
Tahu, the government purchased the lessees' interests in three
pastoral leases covering the Greenstone, Elfin Bay and Routeburn
Stations. A highly inflated price of $6.85 million was paid for
the three grazing leases. The underlying land, including conservation
values and its potential for recreation and tourism, was already
owned by the Crown.
Approximately 27,000 hectares were placed in a 'Land Bank' for
possible (Government's term) future settlement of Ngai Tahu land
claims. All the land is now unoccupied Crown Land (but farmed
for the Government) pending decisions on its future.
The former pastoral leases cover valley floors and mountain tops
and are intermingled with forested public conservation areas and
mountain lands in the Mount Aspiring and Fiordland national parks.
Substantial public facilities (huts and tracks) are established
on the former leasehold without any formal protection or rights
of public usage. Secure public access is almost non-existent;
public access has been completely at the discretion of the landholders.
Ngai Tahu have expressed an interest (possibly for development,
or licences for use) in the adjoining public areas as well.
For several hundred years visitors
have walked the Greenstone Valley crossing of the southern alps.
Firstly there were Maori en-route to the pounamu (greenstone)
resources of the west coast. For the last 100 years there have
been trampers, hunters and anglers. This is an unroaded, readily
accessible, low altitude walk within the capability of most people.
The Greenstone and Caples valleys now attract at least 2000 trampers
per year. There is also a walkway to the Mavora Lakes via the
Mararoa Valley.
Public use is not confined to following a few popular tracks.
There is a lengthy history of informal 'wander-at-will' over much
of the properties. Technically this has been trespassing.
Recently a draft National Water Conservation Order was notified
which recommends that the Greenstone and Caples rivers be "preserved
in their natural state"--the highest level of protection
available--because of their outstanding trout fisheries, ecosystem
and natural qualities.
In a report on 'conservation values' the Department of Conservation
identified the following recreational features--
Government is involved in secret
negotiations with Ngai Tahu and has rejected requests for public
consultation on the future of the stations. Government has only
given selected interest groups, including PANZ, opportunity to
comment on a DOC assessment of conservation values. No call has
been made for public comment on the appropriateness of a 'settlement'
involving these lands, or the form of such a settlement. Ngai
Tahu has announced their intention to operate various new tourism
ventures that centre on acquiring the stations. Despite such assumptions
of ownership, Government denies that any decisions have been made
about the properties.
The Government has decided only to consult with those groups which
it considers to have "a clear and appropriate interest"
(Doug Graham 2 February 1994). According to Government the wider
public's views aren't worth hearing!
The Government has frequently
said it will not contemplate the erosion of existing public access
to these lands, nor harm to their conservation and recreational
values, and that the rights and obligations of Ngai Tahu will
be no different from that of the previous lessees. However the
previous lessees held trespass rights over all the leasehold.
There were no legal rights of access over the former leasehold
and still none as Crown land.
There are unformed roads bisecting the former leases but these
do not coincide with the walking tracks. There are marginal strips
only along the banks of the Caples and part of the Mararoa rivers,
but no practical means of access to them. There is a history of
access problems for hunters wishing to reach the Recreational
Hunting Area on adjoining public land.
What is needed is greatly improved rights of public access over
and through the former leaseholds. Government has not indicated
how recreational and conservation values would be protected if
the land were passed to Ngai Tahu. PANZ believes that public ownership
and control is the only way to properly safeguard the outstanding
public values of the area.
A multimillion dollar monorail
up the Greenstone Valley to Milford Sound was the first indication
of Ngai Tahu's plans for the area. This proposal has been in the
headlines for months although, for the time being, this is "on
hold". A 'transportation link' of some kind through the valley
is a long-term ambition. However this would greatly reduce the
attractiveness of the valley as a popular tramping route. "Eco-tourism"
in general has been advanced as an intention, associated with
major developments in Queenstown and developments on-site.
Ngai Tahu also want to farm the area and has talked of increasing
stock numbers in the sensitive Mararoa headwaters. But the Crown
Research Institute have noted serious stock damage to bush edges
from existing stocking. Wetlands are also being adversely affected.
Ngai Tahu's wish for freehold over the whole area is strongly
supported by Federated Farmers who see a 'precedent value' for
all the other pastoral high country of the South Island. Under
freehold ownership, or exclusive occupation under a leasehold,
the door would be open for exclusive fishing and hunting and tolls
over walking tracks. This would not only 'lock-up' the natural
resources of this area but could prevent or greatly inhibit public
use and enjoyment of the adjoining national parks and conservation
areas.
The Ngai Tahu Trust Board's hostile or dismissive reactions to
public interest in the area, and to the existence of recreation
and conservation values that might inhibit their ambitions, are
fair warning of the likely consequences of their gaining control.
"Ngai Tahu was comfortable with the current level of legal
access but would not commit itself to improving legal public access.
Ngai Tahu was hostile to the marginal strip theory", and,
"the Department of Conservation had exaggerated the conservation
values...many of the department's ambitions to protect the values...were
unreasonable...the DOC report included some "balmy conservation
values" and "went overboard with phobias..." (Tipene
O'Regan, Otago Daily Times 15/11/93). Mr. O'Regan's line is 'give
us the ownership of the area first, then we will discuss protection'.
PANZ believes that it would be totally irresponsible and unjust
of Government to adopt such a course.
The issue has been running hot
in Otago and Southland newspapers for months and was aired on
Frontline (TVNZ) before Christmas. At a recent DOC 'invitee-only'
meeting in Queenstown there was endorsement of DOC's identification
of very high conservation and recreational values in the area,
but condemnation of the lack of a proper public consultation process.
The meeting asked Government not to make decisions on the future
of the area prior to such a process being implemented.
Approximately 7000 people, many from Queenstown, have signed a
petition opposing any development of a monorail or road in the
Greenstone Valley.
Government's secrecy over the matter, its lack of public consultation,
its continuing efforts to blur issues of public access and public
ownership, and the unjust proposed allocation to one interest
at the expense of all others, are some of the reasons why the
public should reject the proposal.