Hapu members must sign up for cash to be paid out

A Mahia-based group of Maori will get a share of the $50 million fisheries payout to Hawkes Bay's Ngati Kahungunu when they can prove how many people they have.

Rongomaiwahine, which is a hapu within Ngati Kahungunu, was given special status in fisheries legislation passed in Parliament on Thursday to break away from its parent tribe and claim a share of the Ngati Kahungunu fisheries settlement of $50 million to $55 million.

The exact size of the Rongomaiwahine payout will depend on the size of its coastline and how many people nominate themselves as Rongomaiwahine in the next national census in 2006.

The Rongomaiwahine Trust held a meeting at Kahika Marae two weeks ago to celebrate its proposed iwi status and start working towards meeting the criteria for independence.

Waitangi Fisheries Commission chairman Shane Jones said the breakaway would have to be done according to Ngati Kahungunu's constitution.

Rongomaiwahine had only four years to complete the process, after which it would lose the right to independence.

Ngati Kahungunu iwi chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana said the worst was over.

"The select committee decided who was iwi and who wasn't. We challenged that, and now we have to get on with the process."

The iwi would signal the appropriate constitutional change at its annual meeting in November, with the expectation it would have to set aside a portion of assets for Rongomaiwahine.

About half of the $750 million settlement assets to Maori nationwide, in the form of quota and cash, will go to iwi.

Inshore quota will be allocated according to coastline size, deepwater on a 25:75 coastline/population split. Cash will be allocated on a population basis.

Iwi have to meet governance requirements and resolve coastline boundary disputes before assets are handed over.

According to the last census, Ngati Kahungunu had 53,000 members but to date only 17,000 are on its register.

Mr Tomoana expects that once settlement has been reached they will sign up to get their share.

Maori's $750 million fisheries assets constitute the biggest treaty settlement.

The legislation creates Aotearoa Fisheries, which will manage half the assets, while the other half is allocated directly to iwi.

Maori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia hailed it as an end to paternalism.

"We've waited a long time ... We don't need to be told how to run things," he said.

National Party deputy leader, Gerry Brownlee said the settlement should benefit all Maori, but that might not prove to be the case. "People at the bottom of the pile will work out that they're not getting very much."

- NZPA