Looking towards the outer Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds, where the Mason family has land. Photo / Tracy Neal
Looking towards the outer Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds, where the Mason family has land. Photo / Tracy Neal
Tauhuaraki Mason had planned to hand over some of his Māori landholdings to his son, but the will he had drafted allowing that to happen was never signed, a High Court decision shows.
Kipa Tauhuaraki Ian Meihana Mason must now share parcels of land in Marlborough with his sisters after his effort to have the updated will validated has failed in court.
Justice Francis Cooke said in a High Court decision released last month they were originally given equal share in their father's property, which was at the time only a house in Picton, according to a will from 1979. A replacement will was drafted in 2000, after Mason had acquired interest in more Māori and European land. The updated will instructed that Ian Meihana Mason was to be bequeathed his father's Māori landholdings in Marlborough to the exclusion of his sisters, but the document was never signed.
The Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds. The outer Pelorus is where the Mason family has property. Photo / Tracy Neal
The oversight, as his mother Constance Mason described in evidence, was what her son sought to correct. But an appeal to the High Court, which aimed to have the replacement will declared his father's last will, has been dismissed.
Tauhuaraki Mason, who was descended from Ngāti Kuia, Ngāti Apa and Rangitāne, was 67 when he died in September 2020. He had lived alone in a campervan at Koromiko, near Picton. His assets included the proceeds of the sale of a home, sold a month before his death, cash and various chattels, and interests in Māori and European freehold land in various locations around Marlborough.
Evidence to the High Court showed it was his intention to leave his interests in the Māori land to his son alone. Constance had been provided for in the will, but it was voided by the end of the marriage in 2004.
Justice Cooke said in his decision last month that he accepted Mason liked the idea of leaving at least some of his Māori landholdings to his son - in accordance with the more traditional values that may have been in his mind at that time, but he never came to the point of finally giving effect to such an idea.
One of the significant pieces of Māori land was at Anakoha Bay, in the outer Marlborough Sounds, which the family had enjoyed over many years. The other Māori land interests were in various parcels of land around the region where the interests were held more diversely with other Māori landowners.
In the draft will, all of the interests Mason held in the Wakatū Incorporation (Nelson based, iwi-owned organisation representing the interests of those descended from the customary Māori land owners across Te Tauihu) were left in equal shares to their children, as were his interests in the land at Anakoha Bay. It was intended that Ian Meihana Mason was to be left all of his other interests in Māori land.
Looking towards the outer Pelorus Sound in the Marlborough Sounds, where the Mason family has land. Photo / Tracy Neal
Evidence from the son and his mother showed their understanding was that Mason intended to leave all his Māori landholdings, including those at Anakoha Bay, to the applicant. Yet Justice Cooke noted the terms of the draft will did not do that — it left Anakoha Bay equally to all the siblings, with only the other Māori landholdings left to the applicant.
The High Court decision noted that the first will was prepared after the birth of the Masons' first child, Arena and at that stage they owned no land apart from a house in Picton. Then, in April 2000 Tauhuaraki and Constance Mason sought legal input into preparing new wills to take into account the further acquisitions.
Constance Mason recalled they had read over the draft wills and that they decided to sign them but was surprised to find out that they had not been executed after her former husband's death.
"I can only assume that while we intended to sign the wills but did not get around to doing so before we went back to the [Marlborough] Sounds, as we usually did each year," the decision noted.
The couple separated within four months of the draft being prepared. Justice Cooke said it was a plausible explanation for why Mason did not execute the draft will.
Arena Mason, who with her sisters opposed their brother's application, said it was not their father's intention to leave the Māori landholding only to the applicant, and that this was never raised with them.
She says that in 2019 she discussed the Māori landholdings with her father. At that stage she purchased a will kit at his request and that there were some discussions about updating his arrangements. She says that he wanted to take steps to vest those interests in a whānau trust, because he now had nine grandchildren.
Justice Cooke said Constance Mason had not said what happened with her own will, once the marriage was over.
"I do not doubt her evidence. She is seeking to explain what she and her former husband did some 20 years ago. But her evidence does not exclude the possibility that Mr Mason became less certain about what should happen with his property on his death and the plan for joint wills."
