Jones Shane: Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika) Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Jones Shane: Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika) Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5342] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 A tena tatou katoa. Te tuatahi he tuku mihi atu ki nga kaihautu o te waka kua u mai ki roto i te Whare Paremata i tenei ra Taranaki Whanui tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa. Kei roto tonu tatou i te wa o Matariki roto noki i te wa o te reo Maori. He haringa he koanga ngakau ka tatu tenei kaupapa mo te hia ranei tau e tarewa ana i raro i te tiahotanga a Matariki i roto noki i te whakanuinga o te reo Maori. Na reira tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa. 
[ 
Greetings to us all. In the first instance I acknowledge the helmsmen of the canoe that berthed here in the House of Parliament today Taranaki Whanui I extend greetings to you greetings greetings and greetings to you all. We are still in the time of Matariki and also the time of the Maori language. There is a sense of gladness and rejoicing that this matter that has been suspended for so many years is settled at last as Matariki beam down and while the Maori language is being celebrated at the same time. So greetings to you greetings to you and greetings to you all 
.] 
I make a small contribution along with my fellow parliamentarians to the debate on the Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika). As I have said in Maori we are drawing to the end of the Matariki portion of the maramataka. It is great to know that this piece of history is being completed—in terms of the bill’s journey through the House of Representatives—under the eyes of Matariki and at a time when we are celebrating the renaissance of the Maori language. 
The Taranaki people have a saying amongst a host of others: “E kore a Taranaki e ngaro he harakeke tongainui waiwiri.” It refers to the fact that waiwiri is a type of flax and that although the leaves die and perish at the base it nourishes and regenerates a new generation a relevant saying when one thinks of the large number of people have sought to keep the kaupapa of the Wellington Tenths claim alive over many generations; it has passed from one generation to another to another. This settlement hopefully marks a time when a new phase and a new set of deliberations and challenges begin: how to take the endowment and the legacy arrived at through an apology and a transfer of wealth to the tangata whenua so that it might be husbanded and a new quality of both leadership and stewardship can be shown to the fellow citizens of Wellington by the tangata whenua. 
Before I complete this speech a few names ought to be mentioned. I recall driving my uncle the Rev. Maori Marsden down to Motunui in the 1980s at the time when former Prime Minister Mr Muldoon had a synthetic fuels plant agenda. We were greeted by Aila Taylor and that bunch of stalwarts Marge Ina Ivy and a variety of others. In many respects when we stand here today as Maori joining with our kin and our fellow parliamentarians it is important to bear witness and offer testimony to the people who carried this torch with no money very little recognition and against open hostility. We should remember those people and pay homage to them. 
Of course I cannot claim to have married into the Taranaki people. But I give Sir Paul Reeves notice: I have seven children and I am working on it. I am sure I speak on behalf of all of us—the Maori in the House along with our Pakeha colleagues—when I tell the Taranaki Whanui to take this waka forward into uncharted territory and create something that will last as long as the legacy of grievance that has held them together. They should let the spellbinding nature of success bind them even closer and closer into the future. Kia ora tatou katoa.