Waitara deal not in bag, says Wilson

Treaty Minister Margaret Wilson has made it clear that Crown involvement in the Waitara leasehold land proposal is far from a done deal.

On Tuesday night, the New Plymouth District Council solved the 140-year ownership dispute by deciding to sell the 146ha of land to the Government, which in turn would add it to its treaty settlement with Te Atiawa.

The Pekapeka Block was confiscated after the wars of the 1860s.

Mayor Peter Tennent said there had been plenty of dialogue between the council and the Government, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, and he was confident the proposal would go ahead.

But that plan ran into several snags yesterday.

It started with Ms Wilson saying there were issues still to be worked through between the Crown and the council.

Then yesterday afternoon, New Plymouth lawyer Dennis King filed a statement of claim in the High Court against the council on behalf of the Waitara Leaseholders Association.

But Mr Tennent was still insisting the proposal would go ahead.

Ms Wilson was asked yesterday whether the Cabinet had approved the purchase of the land, which has a market valuation of about $4 million.

In a written response, she acknowledged that the Government had co-operated with the council on the issue, but stopped short of saying the proposal was certain to go ahead.

"The Crown is yet to make a decision on whether to accept the council's offer to include the Waitara lands in a settlement of Te Atiawa's historical Treaty claims. I'll be taking a paper to Cabinet shortly," she said.

If the Crown accepted the offer, conditions would apply.

Nothing could happen until a settlement with the iwi was finalised, said Ms Wilson, and the Waitara land value would be offset against the $34 million financial redress agreed to in a 1999 heads of agreement.

Te Atiawa spokesman Peter Moeahu was relaxed about the Crown's stance, but said any settlement was at least two years away.

Leaseholders association chairman Jonathan Marshall said the legal action asked the court to direct the council to allow leaseholders to freehold their land if they wanted to do so.

Disputed land

* Te Atiawa have long wanted to regain possession of the land, which was confiscated by the Crown in the 1860s as punishment after the Land Wars.

* The New Plymouth District Council wants to sell the 146ha of land to the Government so it can be used as part of a treaty settlement.

- NZPA