A landmark Waitangi Tribunal ruling has found the Crown was complicit in the pollution and degradation of Lake Horowhenua and the Hokio Stream.
Claims by Muaupoko iwi that the Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi in Horowhenua have been upheld by the Tribunal, and admitted by the Crown, in a report released last week.
Titled Horowhenua: the Muaupoko Priority Report, the document concerns 30 claims relating to Muaupoko that focus on their lands at Horowhenua as well as Lake Horowhenua and the Hokio Stream, considered taonga, or treasures.
The report says Levin township land was purchased by the Crown in a way which was "significantly unfair" to Muaupoko in the 1880s, and recommends a settlement is negotiated.
The Tribunal heard the claims as a priority in 2015-16, with the Crown assisting by making a number of significant concessions, including that some legislation and Crown acts have prejudiced Muaupoko, and that they were made "virtually landless".