A bill that creates a clear separation between the Government and the board responsible for the Treaty of Waitangi estate passed its first reading in Parliament today.
It was the result of a review of the Waitangi National Trust Board Act between 2006 and 2008.
The board administers the house and 506ha formerly owned by James Busby at Waitangi where the Treaty was signed in 1840.
The Treaty House was sold by the Busby family in 1882 and in 1932 the then Governor-General and his wife, Lord and Lady Bledisloe, bought it and a large area of adjacent land.
It was formally gifted to the nation at a large hui on February 6, 1934 - the first Waitangi Day.