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WAITANGI - Prime Minister Helen Clark has rejected a suggestion the Government wants to take over the running of the Waitangi National Trust Board.
The board controls 506 hectares of land at Waitangi, including the Treaty House grounds where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840.
Several Government ministers sit on the board but last year new Governor General Anand Satyanand broke a long tradition when he refused to sit on the board.
Miss Clark confirmed today the Government was reviewing the legislation which covered the board but said there was "no pre-determination" and no deadline had been set for a decision on the future of the board.
When asked if she could rule out the Government taking over the board, she said there was a review starting of the legislation.
"But the review has no particular time line or outcome."
The Waitangi National Trust Board refused to comment but it is understood to have taken legal advice on the suggestion and the deed of gift which was signed when Lord Bledisloe gave the Treaty House and land to the people of New Zealand in 1932.
Under the deed of gift, the board of trustees, set up to administer the Treaty House and surrounding land, was to hold the land in perpetuity as a national monument.
In background papers the board said Lord Bledisloe's dream was of "an estate to be held in trust for all New Zealanders as a place for recreation, education and cultural events, free from political interference for all time".
The board gets no government money and its $2.8 million income is from ground rent at the Copthorne Hotel, the golf course, forestry assets and admission fees.
Much of its annual profit of about $400,000 over the past few years has been put into a building fund to build a new visitors' centre and museum. That building project got a major boost yesterday when the ASB Community Trust announced a $7 million grant.
The grant was among the largest made by the trust.
- NZPA
