Tainui invests in old age

Tainui Group Holdings has taken its first step into direct investment in shares, with Ngai Tahu Group showing the way.

The two iwi companies jointly spent $49.5 million for six percent of listed rest home operator Ryman Healthcare.

They're the same shares Ngai Tahu sold a year ago to Australian investment bank Babcock and Brown for $63 million.

Mike Pohio, TGH's chief executive, says Tainui has invested in mutual funds holding shares on the New Zealand, Australian and Asian markets, but this is the first time it has directly invested in a listed company.

He says Ryman has showed strong performance, and it has a valuable land bank for future developments.

“Population's getting older and the number of those that are heading towards retirement is also continuing to grow so I guess there’s some underlying demographics about Ryman’s business that are encouraging and positive,” Mr Pohio says.

Tainui holds a 4.5 percent stake in Ryman, while Ngai Tahu has increased its holding to 8 percent.

FOMA WORKS NETWORK FOR DROUGHT RELIEF

The Federation of Maori Authorities is using its extensive networks to find help for Maori farmers in drought hit areas.

Executive member Roger Pikia says it's in times of trouble that the values of whanaungatanga and manaakitanga come into their own.

He says FOMA is co-ordinating communications among members so resources get where they are needed.

“Feed shortage is the biggest issue at the moment, particularly in the Waikato. It’s a matter of identifying those of our members that may have surplus feed available for sale that some of our farmers within the Waikato region could potentially access,” Mr Pikia says.

FOMA activities like the competition for the Ahuwhenua Trophy have strengthened links between Maori farmers.

MOTHERS’ TALES PRIMING EARLY MEMORIES

An emphasis on storytelling is being credited with Maori have the earliest childhood memories of any culture studied.

Elaine Reese from Otago University's Department of Psychology says young Maori adults on average can remember back to when they were two and a half years, whereas non-Maori usually don't remember anything that happened before they were 3 and a half.

Her research was aimed at finding out the reasons for this.

She says Maori culture emphasises memory and storytelling, and the way Maori mothers talk with their children helps to shape memories.

“Compared to the Pakeha mothers and children, the Maori mums were talking in a richer way, especially about the child’s birth story, in comparison to how they were talking about more mundane events in the children’s lives and they were especially using more talk about emotions and talking about time more often in their stories,” Professor Reese says.

Early memories may help adolescents form a stronger sense of identity.

BULLY PETERSON AFTER WHOLE FARM

The man who cut down trees on a farm which is to be returned to treaty claimants says charges against him were a sick joke.

Wilfred Peterson Junior is one of 11 people set to appear in Kaitaia District Court next month on charges of trespassing on Stony Creek station near Kaeo.

The land is being held by the Office of Treaty Settlements for a trust representing the six hapu of Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa.

Mr Peterson says the $30 million farm should go only to those whanau of Ngati Aukiwa hapu whose ancestors actually lived there.

The logging was just the latest in a long running protest by whanau against the settlement.

“The trees we just wanted to make a statement that we are still here. We wanted to see what they would charge us with, and basically the claim was of theft. Which is pretty fresh coming form the Crown, given that they have admitted that the land was illegally taken from Ngati Aukiwa. It’s like the kettle calling the pot black. They’re telling us they’re charging us with taking trees off the land that they’ve admitted taking off us all those years ago,” Mr Peterson says.

He says Conservation land next to Stony Creek should also come back to Ngati Aukiwa.

TRUST SOLICITING GRANT APPLICATIONS FROM MAORI

A philanthropic trust wants more Maori to apply for its putea.

A review of the JR McKenzie Trust revealed a lack of engagement with Maori, so it's set up a new programme, Te Kawai Toru, to support projects run by Maori organisations.

PJ Devonshire, its kaitohutohu and grants advisor, says there are advantages in dealing with private organisations like the trust, Rotary and Lions.

“It's private money from a philanthropic area so we do have a little leeway in areas than maybe government funding with all the headaches that go with that sort of grants. We have a bit more leeway to do a few more things,” Devonshire says.

The average regional grant from the McKenzie Trust is about $3000, with national projects averaging four times that.

NOVELS GIVE INSIGHT INTO MASCULINITY

Maori men have struggled to deal with two cultures.

That's what an Otago University professor argues in his new book The Ship of Dreams: Masculinity in contemporary Pakeha and Maori fiction.

Alistair Fox looked at how Maori and Pakeha writers, including Witi Ihimaera and Alan Duff, portrayed the male psyche.

He says early Pakeha settlers brought with them a puritan ethic, working hard but often being emotionally detached from their sons.

Maori had their own inter-generational conflicts as they struggled to meet the expectations of their elders, as well as move in two cultures.

“One of the problems for young Maori men, as both Witi Ihimaera and Alan Duff present it, is that their dream are different from both their parents and grandparents. They want to be allowed to pursue those dreams and really make a brave new world, and sometimes they feel they don’t have scope to do that,” Professor Fox says.