May 27, 2015
New hope for Mangatu landowners
Mangatu Blocks shareholders are waiting on the Waitangi Tribunal to take a fresh look at the East Coast incorporation's claim for the return of almost 3500 hectares taken from them in 1961 under the pretext of erosion control.
The High Court has ruled that the tribunal did not give proper consideration to the request it order the compulsory resumption of the land, which the crown wants to use for the Te Aitanga a Mahaaki settlement.
It said the tribunal was swayed by irrelevant considerations like the crown's policy of only wanting to deal with it considers are large natural groupings of claimants.
Mangatu chair Alan Haronga says shareholders felt swindled when the crown turned the land into a production forest.
"It's not attractive land its located in a far northwest region in the Motu area where its quite mountainous. The land is prone to erosion so its not elegant land but its ancestral land and it means a lot to our owners and particularly the older ones that suffered the indignity in the sixties" he says.
Alan Haronga says the 30-year battle for the land has been costly for Mangatu, which has assets of $150 million.
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