Hauiti Claudette: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHauiti Claudette: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13724. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAUDETTE HAUITI (National):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. The National Party will be supporting this private bill the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill in the name of Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell going to the Māori Affairs Committee.What we are effectively doing here is amending a century-old trust. We have heard the story of the New Zealand Mission Trust as well as Samuel Marsden. When I hear the name Samuel Marsden I recall an area in Sydney inParramatta on New Zealand Street where Samuel Marsden had his market gardens. He had a mission there and he established an agricultural college there. A lot of our rangatira were encouraged to send their boys there to learn how to grow kai—as though we at that time did not know how to grow kai. However three of ourtamaiti our rangatahi fromNgāpuhi were sent to SamuelMarsden’s mission inParramatta on New Zealand Street. It was during a time when influenza was running rampant through Australia and our rangatahi there caught the flu. Three of our rangatahi to cool themselves off placed their feet in theParramatta River and subsequently they passed away. It was not until quite a few months later that their parents were told of their passing. However unfortunately they were never brought home. Whether at the time their parents their papa or their mama wanted them returned home or not I am not sure.However in the mid-1990s a very largeope thanks to Wairua Tapu Church in Sydney was invited by the council in Sydney to bless the area before the building on the site was demolished and then turned into a car park. So Wairua Tapu arranged a very largeope and the Māori Women’s Welfare League and the Māori Council brought iwi from Aotearoa over there to bless the area. What they thought would take a few hours took in fact almost 48 hours—obviously they had a break—but they felt that the area was so deep and rich in our history and our wairua that they were not able to leave without it being blessed to the extent that they thought it needed to be done.So that is part of our connection with the Mission Trust. It was not just around Aotearoa but it extended its arm right across the Tasman toPoihākena too. So with the assistance of Samuel Marsden we also have a very deep connection to theKurranulla people who are over inPoihākena. As I said the New Zealand Mission Trust is a remnant of the first missionaries in the 19th century and I think that this deed the original deed—and I would like to congratulate Te Ururoa Flavell the MP on his generosity in stating that it was a deed of its time. This bill therefore is a bill of its time its relevance and its pertinence today.We have also got to remember that this bill is not a precedent. In fact there was something very similar in 1986. A similar issue arose with money and investments derived from lands held by the Mission Trust in Port Waikato. It was to be transferred toNgātiKārewa andNgātiTāhina and the result was the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Port Waikato Maraetai) Empowering Act of 1986. With this bill the return of the land is highly significant to thehapū ofNgāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho. Thehapū say that it will re-establish their connection to the awa—to the water—and provideincome to thehapū and as my colleague said it comes on the 150th anniversary of GatePā. Kia ora.