Spirituality or special treatment?

A legal battle has begun over the Rotorua lakes following the Government's proposal to give ownership of the lake beds to Te Arawa.

Lakeside residents say the issue was settled more than 80 years ago when ownership was vested in the Crown. Te Arawa say that deal was not honoured. RENEE KIRIONA reports


Anaru Rangiheuea does not want to talk about legalities. He talks about phantom canoes, taniwha, omens and some ghosts that are bothering his neighbours.

The 69-year-old chairman of the Te Arawa Trust Board doesn't want to discuss the historical claim of his tribe to 13 lakes in the Rotorua district or the deal it has been offered by Treaty Negotiations Minister Margaret Wilson.

It's a matter, he says, that is not up for debate unless you are a descendant of Te Arawa or in Government.

From the living room of his home, built on ancestral whanau land, he looks out his window to Lake Tarawera.

"It wasn't only our people who saw the Maori warriors on a phantom canoe on this lake just days before Mt Tarawera erupted," he says.

"Pakeha people saw it too, so no one can call me crazy.

"For us [Te Arawa] all of these lakes have spiritual beings in them, be it taniwha or kaitiaki [guardians]. Some of them come in the form of lizards, eels or floating logs. For us they can be either good or bad signs, it all depends on how, where and when they appear."

But the apparitions are not restricted to the water. He tells of "wairua" [ghosts] appearing before his Pakeha neighbours who live on the lake's edge.

"I get neighbours coming to me all the time asking what they should do about these ghosts they say they are seeing.

"Apparently one of them is an old Maori woman and the other a younger woman and a child. I tell them they must be living on waahi tapu, a burial site."

If these stories are strange, they also testify to the tribe's "deeper spiritual connection" with the lakes, he says.

"Like it or not, our relationship with the lakes goes back several hundred years. We're married to the lakes and I long for the day when we are reunited with them."

But elsewhere on the lakefront there are concerns about public access, who stands to benefit commercially and whether non-Maori in Rotorua will become "second-class citizens" if Te Arawa gains ownership.

Those fears were fuelled last December when the Government offered Te Arawa title to the lake bed, $10 million compensation and an apology to settle their Treaty of Waitangi claim.

For Rotorua councillor Cliff Lee, who has been campaigning against exactly that for the past nine years, it only caused more problems.

At first the American-born councillor started his crusade with an average of three published letters a week in the local newspaper, a petition signed by 14,000 residents and tourists, a poll through the local newspaper (which he won) and now a High Court action.

He is one of 39 registered members of the Rotorua Lakes Protection Society which in August filed a case against the Government, claiming it is acting illegally by transferring title to the lake bed.

"This issue has bothered me for a long time. The lakes should stay in public ownership. As far as I'm concerned the 1922 agreement between them and Te Arawa is a done deal.

"People need to know that if they get ownership, then there will be a lot of non-Maori residents here feeling like second-class citizens. The offer is nothing more then special treatment to Te Arawa."

The dispute over who owns the Rotorua lakes goes back to early last century when New Zealand was experiencing desperate times and the world was at war.

After receiving gifted land from Ngati Whakaue, a sub-tribe of Te Arawa, in 1861 the Government of the day turned its attention to using the lakes and springs for tourism.

In the early 1900s it tried to get ownership of the lakes - a move that sparked the same fundamental legal arguments at the centre of today's Foreshore and Seabed Bill.

In an attempt by Te Arawa to get their ownership rights to the lakes investigated, the Government turned to the Native Land Court and the Court of Appeal.

Both found that the tribe had a valid case but fell short of making any rulings as the Government declared neither had the jurisdiction to do so.

Te Arawa, financially troubled because of 14 years of litigation, took time out, Mr Rangiheuea says.

But the case resurfaced in the early 1920s when a number of its leaders returned from serving in World War I.

In an out-of-court settlement, they and the Government struck an accord that later became the Native Land Claims and Native Land Adjustments Act 1922.

That act declared the lakes to be the property of the Crown and provided benefits to Te Arawa, including the right to take indigenous fish and to receive an annuity of £6000 from the Crown.

The money would be received by the Te Arawa Maori Trust Board, which was set up for that purpose.

But 65 years on, and because the Crown failed to review the annuity when inflation came into effect, the board took the issue and other grievances to the Waitangi Tribunal.

According to the board's former chairman, Arapeta Tahana, if the sum was indexed to inflation it would be about $500,000 a year rather than $18,000.

But that is a point Mr Lee and his group, represented by Auckland lawyer and Rotorua lakeside property owner David Schnauer, question, with Te Arawa's competency to help manage the lakes and proposed compensation money.

"It's far too much to give Te Arawa the lakes because they believe they never got the right amount.

There was never an inflation clause in the agreement in the first place."

But inflation was not foreseen in 1922 and Mr Rangiheuea says Te Arawa are more than capable of managing the lakes - a role they would share with the Rotorua District Council and Environment Bay of Plenty.

"We have more Te Arawa scholars going through university than any other group in Rotorua. For starters, we have too many lawyers, enough accountants and are encouraging our people to enter into marine science."

Because of the perceptions created by the issue, Margaret Wilson says she has steadfastly negotiated to protect existing rights.

"The access that both Maori and non-Maori currently have to the lakes will not alter.

"Current boat shed and jetty owners have had all their existing rights protected.

"Te Arawa will not be allowed to charge for access to the lakes and ownership of the water column remains with the Crown," she says.

For Mr Rangiheuea, the tribe's claim is not just a relitigation of the 1922 agreement, but a bigger picture of its grievances dating back to 1840.

"Our native fisheries are gone and our lakes are dying because the people who said they would look after them didn't."

For his part, Mr Lee was eagerly awaiting Opposition leader Don Brash's speech on the issue.

Speaking in Rotorua, Dr Brash said the National Party would strongly oppose the settlement.

But for now Te Arawa are not fazed, Mr Rangiheuea says.

Instead they are focused on getting as many of their people registered so they can vote on the settlement offer.

"The public has nothing to fear by Te Arawa owning the lakes. They were put here for all of us to enjoy."

The Crown's offer

* Te Arawa gets

* Title to the lakebeds.

* $10 million.

* A formal apology.

The Crown acknowledges:

* It failed to legislate for enough fishing licences for Te Arawa.

* It failed to review Te Arawa's annuity, which lost value as a result of inflation.

* It deliberately delayed providing survey plans and public maps for Native Land Court hearings.

* The pollution and degradation of the lakes caused a sense of grievance in the tribe.

* The lakes have made a significant contribution to tourism and the wealth of New Zealand and Rotorua.

The lakes

1. Rotoehu

2. Rotoma

3. Rotoiti

4. Rotorua

5. Okataina

6. Okareka

7. Rerewhakaaitu

8. Tarawera

9. Rotomahana

10. Tikitapu (the Blue Lake)

11. Ngahewa

12. Tutaeinanga

13. Opouri/Ngapouri

Note: Te Arawa is no longer seeking ownership of Lake Ngakaro/Okaro, although it was in their original claim.