Taupo 'air space' talks raise concerns elsewhere

1.00pm

A decision by the Government to try to strike a deal with Ngati Tuwharetoa to prevent the tribe charging for airspace over Lake Taupo, has raised concern among Rotorua residents over a lakes deal with local tribe Te Arawa.

The Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board will enter negotiations with the Government next week over its belief a 1992 settlement giving the tribe ownership of the Taupo lake bed entitles it to charge a licence fee to commercial operators using the water and airspace above it.

The Government's initial "letter of offer" to Te Arawa regarding its claim over 13 of Rotorua's lakebeds specifically included a "relationship agreement" between the tribe and the Crown regarding the airspace and water above the lakebeds.

However, Treaty Negotiations Minister Margaret Wilson yesterday told Parliament the Government would exclude airspace and water from the agreement with Te Arawa.

A spokeswoman for Ms Wilson today told NZPA the agreement was still being fine-tuned, but a deed of settlement, which did not include rights to the lakes' water or the airspace above it, would be initialled next Friday.

Te Arawa would then vote on whether to accept the deal.

Neither Tuwharetoa nor Te Arawa was willing to discuss the issue yesterday.

Despite the difference between the Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa deals, the latest controversy has created uncertainty among local residents.

The Lakes Protection Society -- which plans to fight the claim in the High Court -- said the Taupo controversy showed why the Te Arawa settlement needed to be challenged.

Chairman Mike McVicker said it had taken Tuwharetoa only 12 years before it put extra pressure on the Crown for more money and rights.

Mokoia Island Tours Ltd managing director James Summers said his company, which owns the Lakeland Queen Floating Restaurant, was waiting and watching for the impending Te Arawa settlement.

The business already paid a levy to the Rotorua District Council for the use of the jetty and wharf. If forced to pay a levy to local iwi, costs to tourists would have to be increased, he said.

However Rotorua mayor Grahame Hall said the Tuwharetoa and Te Arawa deals were completely different.

Tuwharetoa had far more control over the day-to-day running of the lake than Te Arawa would have, he said.

Te Arawa Maori Trust Board chief executive Roku Mihinui said the board had no comment to make at this stage.

National leader Don Brash said yesterday the whole issue raised by Tuwharetoa confirmed the treaty industry had "gone much too far".

But Conservation Minister Chris Carter, the minister in charge of the negotiations with Tuwharetoa, said the Government was being forced to sort out the problem, which resulted from a "sloppy" settlement signed off by the National government.

Dr Brash will be in Rotorua on Monday to announce the party's stance on Te Arawa's agreement.

- DAILY POST (ROTORUA)