KEY POINTS:
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen had to be protected from an angry mob of screaming protesters after being verbally abused and jostled before the signing of a historic Maori land claim agreement between the Crown and a small Far North iwi.
The event became so heated that the meeting was hastily transferred to another location.
Ministers, dignitaries, iwi members and invited guests were at isolated Taemaro Bay, on the Far North's east coast, to take part in the ceremony on Saturday when the mood turned angry.
The ceremony marked the signing of an agreement in principle between the Crown and Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa for the return of 3000ha and the vesting in local Maori of 10 sites of cultural and spiritual significance.
But the event quickly turned sour after Dr Cullen, the Treaty Negotiations Minister, flew in by helicopter and landed on the beach to be met by a hostile group protesting against the agreement being signed.
Associate minister, list MP and Far North resident Shane Jones yesterday said he had suspected trouble might be brewing and had arrived early.
He said he, his son Tohe Kleskovic, Kelvin Davis and Rudy Taylor formed a "protective security barrier" around Dr Cullen as the minister became "surrounded by heated rhetoric, verbal abuse and a bit of jostling - but nothing to endanger life or limb".
Other ministers, including Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia, landed from a boat moored offshore while a group of local Ngati Aukiwa hapu members and supporters made it clear they were opposed to the signing.
Mr Horomia, Mr Jones and others went into a tent and after a discussion with Ngati Kahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board members, kaumatua and officials, a decision was made to transfer the signing to Kerikeri.
Dr Cullen left in the helicopter and signatories to the agreement later met in Kerikeri - described in a media release as "a more accessible location" to "ensure all parties could attend".
A spokesman for the Ngati Aukiwa group who oppose the agreement, Wilfred Petersen jnr, said most of the about 200 people at the beach were against the arrangement. "We didn't want them signing it on our land."
Trust board chairwoman Manaaki Hoto said the decision was made to move the signing because "too many things were happening".
"Not all of us were safe. It could have developed into something nasty and the children were listening to very bad and abusive language."
Mrs Hoto said the last straw came when a kuia was spat on.
A spokesman for Dr Cullen yesterday said the Deputy Prime Minister was not concerned for his safety.
Mr Jones said the incident was bizarre. "Here we are trying to give back 3000ha to people. Anyone else would give their eye teeth for that and be green with envy."
The agreement in principle signed in Kerikeri includes the return by the Crown of the 2275ha Stony Creek cattle and sheep station 10km south of Mangonui, along with all farm stock and plant. It was owned by Landcorp but held in recent years by the Office of Treaty Settlements for use in negotiating and settling local land claims.
A covenant will protect 450ha of the station with high cultural and historic significance while the Crown-owned Thomson and Clarke blocks, adjacent to Stony Creek, will also be returned.
Ten sites totalling 217ha between Taupo Bay and Whangaroa with cultural and spiritual significance are also to be vested in the iwi, subject to existing public access rights.
No financial redress is proposed in the agreement.
Mrs Hoto said the trust board, renamed Kahukuraariki after an early ancestor, was "absolutely happy" with the agreement in principle but noted, as did the trust board opponents, that it was not binding.
She said if a majority of the iwi's 2000 members decided to withdraw from the agreement, it could do so.
Mr Petersen said the Ngati Aukiwa opponents' position had not changed and it would continue to press its own claims to reclaim Stony Creek station and whenua for its hapu.
