August 10, 2020
Judge Heta Hingston dies aged 82
The Māori Party is paying tribute to the life of former Māori Land Court Judge Heta Ken Hingston, who died at his home in Rotorua yesterday, the day after his 82nd birthday.
Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says Judge Hingston’s decision in the Ngāti Apa case that the Māori Land Court had jurisdiction to consider whether the foreshore and seabed is Māori customary land was a milestone in New Zealand’s political history.
The actions by Helen Clark’s Labour Government to overrule a 2003 Court of Appeal judgment that upheld that finding led to the formation of the Māori Party.
Ms Packer says Judge Hingston, who retired in 1999, spoke at a hui in Tūrangawaewae in 2004 when the Māori party was formed, and he later served as co-vice president of the party.
Before being appointed to the court in 1984, Judge Hingston had been legal advisor for the New Zealand Māori Council, the Te Arawa Māori Trust Board and the Tūhoe/ Waikaremoana Māori Trust Board, as well as acting for Ngāti Pikiao for the Kaituna River Claim and for the Māori landowners in the Rangatira Block Royal Commission.
In addition to the Māori Land Court he was Chief Justice of the High Courts of Niue and a judge of the Cook Islands High Court and Court of Appeal.
Judge Hingston had connections to Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Te Whānau a Apanui,
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