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Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Council ends Taupo occupation

Owners of lakeside land at Taupo are welcoming the eviction of a protest group from a council-owned building at Acacia Bay.

Taupo District Council and police yesterday removed three adults and several children from a shed that had been leased to a rowing club.

The building has since been removed from the site, which is a council road reserve.

The group claimed the council took the land from the Rauhotu hapu in the 1930s.

But Tom Walters, the deputy chair of the Paenoa Te Akau Trust, says the council was given the use of the land by an earlier generation of trustees, and his trust still owns the adjoining block.

He says some of the protesters may have a small shareholding, but they don't represent the majority of owners.

“You know the same family I understand were asked to leave Pukehina Beach so they’ve gone from Pukehina to Hiruharama to Paenoa Te Akau and I guess our question now is where are they going to go next,” Mr Walters says.

The trust will meet the Taupo District Council next week to discuss the future of the land.

ENVIRONMENT COURT AGAIN KNOCKS BACK UNISON NETWORKS

Hawkes Bay hapu Maungaharuru - Tangitu are celebrating the Environment Court's rejection of a 34 turbine wind farm on their sacred maunga.

Spokesperson Tania Hopmans says after five years and nearly half a million dollars fighting Unison Networks' three attempts to build on Te Waka Range, the hapu might at last get some rest.

She says the mountain is important to the identity of the two hapu.

“To build a wind farm on it and have these massive structures that are about 33 storeys high coverg the tip of the mountain was just unacceptable to us as the local tangata whenua,” Hopmans says.

LAST POST FOR MAORI BATTALION VETERAN

The ranks of Maori Battalion veterans has shrunk further, with the death last week of Patrick Tiaki Te Wheoro at the age of 88.

Mr Te Wheoro fought on the frontline at Monte Cassino in Italy.

After being wounded there he became a driver, and after demobilisation continued as a school bus driver around tauranga Moana.

Ngati Kahu kuia Minnie Rangahora Gotz, who grew up with Mr Te Wheoro at Bethlehem's Wairoa Marae, says he made a valuable contribution to his community after he came back from the war.
Patrick Te Wheoro's tangi was held at Wairoa Marae.

NOT ENOUGH MAORI AT SUMMIT FOR GREENS

The Greens' Maori spokesperson says the exclusion of community groups from Friday's Employment Summit is a mistake.

Metiria Terei says jobs are generated at the grass roots level and not just from big business.

And she says while she can accept the absence of the Greens and the Labour Party from the invitation list as politics as usual, the lack of substantial Maori representation suggests the Government doesn't take Maori business seriously.

“There are very few from the community economic development sector or from the Maori community economic development sector. That’s a much bigger gap than the political parties. We don’t need to be there but those people do,” Ms Turei says.

There are 18 Maori invited to the summit, including Business Roundtable chair Rob McLeod, Mark Solomon, Wally Stone and Rangimarie Parata from Ngai Tahu and three representatives of the Maori Women's Welfare League.

TANGATA WHENUA VALUES UPHELD BY COURT

Like a taniwha that keeps coming back, Hawkes Bay hapu cluster Maungaharuru Tangitu hopes Unison networks will finally give up.

The Environment Court has again refused to grant a resource consent for the lines company's proposed wind farm on the Te Waka range.

Hapu spokesperson Tania Hopmans says it's the third time the lines company has come back with a slightly modified proposal, forcing objectors back into the fight.

“The courts have upheld it for the same reasons each time, finding for tangata whenua values over the need for renewable energy. We hope this is the last court case we will be involved in. We hope the message is now very clear to the developers, Unison Networks, that this is not a place to put a wind farm,” Ms Hopmans says.

Maungaharuru Tangitu is now focussing on its next battle, seeking the authority of its people to enter negotiations with the Crown on the Napier inner harbour, Mahaka Waikare Confiscation and Ahuriri Purchase claims.

BUB WEHI BOWING OUT OF TE WAKA HUIA ON HIGH NOTE

Kapa haka legend Ngapo "Bub" Wehi is going out on a high.

Te Waka Huia's fourth national title picked up at last weekend's Te Matatini will be the last under his leadership.

Mr Wehi and wife Pimia are stepping down from the Auckland roopu, ending a 57-year career that started with Gisborne culture group Waihirere.

He says while kapa haka is about whanau, Maori also love to compete.

“ To win is great. This is our sixth win. We had two at Waihirere in 1972 and 1979 and four with Te Waka Huia, so those are the highlights, and I think the first one is always the best one,” Mr Wehi says.

At this stage no clear replacement has emerged as yet.

2 Comments:

Blogger Whakaeke said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

7:59 pm  
Blogger Whakaeke said...

Kia ora I think Tom Walters should get his facts right, those children that were evicted from the rowing club shed are direct descendants of Rauhoto a Tia (2) (Ngati Rauhoto) who was married to Tuwharetoa a Turiroa of Ngati Kurapoto and Tutetawha Whareoneone (2) (Ngati Tutetawha) youngest son of Paramount chief of Ngati Tuwharetoa Te Rangiita in the late 1600's and early 1700's and they were not evicted from Pukehina as that whenua (land) belonged to their grandfather and is in their possession still to this day, their grandmother has the connection to this whenua in the Tuwharetoa Rohe........Tena Koe e Hoa...

8:05 pm  

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