Non-Tribal Redress

Non-Tribal Redress provided for many claims by individuals that were also heard by the Waitangi tribunal. These private claims are completely separate from the collective Ngāi Tahu Claim, Te Kerēme.

In the past, the Crown has lacked the motivation to resolve these issues and the drawn out processes of the under-resourced Maori Land Court have generally resulted in these claims remaining unresolved. The Crown’s offer contained a firm commitment to provide the resources to resolve all these claims within a specified period of time.

Ngāi Tahu Ancillary Claims Trust

The responsibility of the Ancillary Claims Trust have now been completed and its office closed.

Any enquiry regarding the Ancillary Claims should be directed as follows:

List of Beneficial Owners

Any queries concerning the lists e.g. omissions, number of shares, succession should be directed to the Maori Land Court

76 Peterborough St
PO Box 2200
Christchurch
Ph 03 962 4900
Email [email protected]

Ancillary Claims

Ancillary Claims are the private claims of individual Ngāi Tahu beneficial owners or groups of beneficial owners which were taken to the Waitangi Tribunal at the same time as the Wai 27 hearings were held. The Waitangi Tribunal published a separate report on these claims (The Ngāi Tahu Ancillary Claims Report 1995).

These claims arose out of Crown actions when dealing with the individual property rights of members of Ngāi Tahu Whānui in the years following the execution of the original purchase agreements between Ngāi Tahu and the Crown. For this reason, the redress package offered in respect of these claims goes to the descendants of the claimants and does not come to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.

The Crown is to offer redress in respect of every beneficial (non-tribal) Ancillary Claim which was upheld by the Waitangi Tribunal, at no cost to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.

The Ancillary Claims for which redress has been offered are;

Fenton Entitlements – The Crown offer would provide redress in six cases relating to Fenton Reserves awarded in 1868. The redress would allow these descendants to occupy temporarily and exclusively certain sites owned by the Crown for up to 210 days per year, together with an associated right to exclusively fish in a part of a waterway. This redress has been offered for Ancillary Claims 3 (Taerutu), 4 (Waimaiaia), 5 (Torotoroa), 6 (Te Aka Aka), and 10 (Pukatahi and Te Houriri).

Fishing Reserves – Title to land close to, or adjacent to, water bodies will be granted in order to provide redress for claims 7 (Te Ihutai), 8 (Ahuriri), 11 (Wainono), and 14 (Hawea). For claim 53 (Tatawai) an area from within the Sinclair Wetlands will be set aside to replace Lake Tatawai and with respect to claim 55 (Waikouaiti Lagoon), the rights of the beneficial owners to take fish from this lagoon are to be restored.

Land Based Claims – which comprise:

  • (i) Kaikōura – unencumbered freehold title to two replacement properties will be given to the descendants of the beneficial owners of claims 1 and 2, whose Tribunal claims were upheld. The status of the Takahanga Marae site will be confirmed and a small urupā will be added to the reserve
  • (ii) Arahura – land (and in some cases replacement land) will be transferred to the descendants of the original beneficial owners of claims 17 (Arawhata MR 1) and 18 (Bruce Bay MR 6). The Māwhera Incorporation will be given title to four properties to settle the seven Māwhera claims which were upheld by the Waitangi Tribunal
  • (iii) Otakou – a small area of land taken for recreation reserve claim 57 (Maranuku) will be returned to the owners and an area of land taken for a scenic reserve claim 56 (Maranuku) will be replaced. The land involved in claim 52 (Harington Point) has already been vested in the descendants of Wiremu Potiki by the Māori Land Court provided that they pay for the site. However, the Crown has undertaken to pay the full costs of this vesting on Settlement Date. With respect of claim 50 (Karitane) the Crown will write to the Dunedin City Council encouraging the Council to resolve the long-standing issue over the ownership of the foreshore reserve. In the case of claim 51 (Taiaroa Heads) the Crown is to implement (as far as it is possible to do so) the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations with respect to this complex claim.
  • (iv) Murihiku – title to areas of replacement land for claim 66 (Invercargill) and claims 67 and 73 (Aparima) will be transferred to the descendants of the original beneficial owners. The long-running claim in respect of the Hedgehope Transmitter site will be resolved by returning title to the whole area to descendants of the original owners, with a lease-back of a portion of the land to the Broadcasting Corporation Ltd. Owners in the Tautuku Block will be permitted to seek legal access across Crown owned land to certain land-locked titles within this block.

A special Trust is to be set up by the Crown, working with Ngāi Tahu, to receive the properties which are being transferred to Ancillary claimants, with a process put in place to identify the current beneficial owners of the land as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Ancillary Claims: Questions & Answers

Q: Why was there no cash compensation for these claims?

A: The basis on which redress was sought for these private claims was to restore to the current beneficial owners of those claims either the land which had been taken by the Crown, or if this was not possible, land of approximately the same area and/or value as the land that had been lost. This is consistent with the approach which has been adopted by claimants in the North Island when settling similar non-tribal claims.

Q: Why were these Ancillary Claims settled under the main claim?

A: Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, and previously the Ngāi Tahu Māori Trust Board, have historically supported the take of individual Ngāi Tahu beneficiaries. The experience of most beneficiaries who try to negotiate directly with the Crown is that it is very difficult to have the claim resolved at all. In some cases, despite the fact that the Crown has been prepared to return land to beneficiaries many years ago, the process has simply become bogged down by bureaucracy.

South Island Landless Natives Act 1906 (SILNA)

There were several claims taken to the Waitangi Tribunal arising out of the Crown’s failure to give effect to various undertakings it made in respect of this Act. The Tribunal upheld five specific claims where the Crown had set aside land for particular beneficial owners, and had then failed to transfer the title to those people. This relates to land at claim 14 (Hawea/Wanaka), 33 (Whakapoai), 16 (South Westland), and 92 (Port Adventure and Toi Toi).

The Crown’s Settlement Offer set out a process for the identification of the descendants of those original beneficiaries. In three cases (Whakapoai, Port Adventure and Toi Toi) the Crown offered the descendants of those beneficial owners either title to the original allocations or the opportunity to enter further negotiations with the Crown. In respect of the Hawea/Wanaka and South Westland claims, the Crown offered alternative land to replace the original reserves. All of this redress was at no cost to Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.

SILNA : Questions & Answers

Q: Did the Crown offer affect the Wai 158 claim?

A: The substance of the Wai 158 claim was not affected by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu accepting the Crown’s Settlement Offer. The owners of the various SILNA lands involved in the Wai 158 claim are free to pursue their own negotiations with the Crown.