Donnelly Brian: Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill — First Reading 
Donnelly Brian: Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:640;Page:10284] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 Thomas Hollis Stace was one of the early settlers in the Pauatahanui area and the family is remembered through the continued existence not only of the burial ground but also of the Taylor-Stace cottage not far from the burial grounds on the shores of the Porirua Harbour. Just as an aside I say that the cottage is listed on the Register of Historic Places as the oldest in the Pauatahanui district an area that was settled as a staging post very early in post-Treaty New Zealand. But it was not Thomas Hollis Stace who first built this building; it was in fact William and Ann Taylor who arrived with their six children in New Zealand in November 1840. They built the cottage before later moving to Tawa and selling it to William Stace. The Stace family took over the simple Georgian cottage constructed with rough-sawn timber and extended it. The timber and the family names have stood the test of time. Many of those names the early European settlers of New Zealand can be found on the gravestones of Pauatahanui. 
One of the descendants of the Taylors their great-great-granddaughter Cathy is the spouse of one Ernie Davis a senior staff member of New Zealand First since 1994. He is someone who has made a huge contribution to the success of New Zealand First being able to achieve so very much since his time here. So working on the thesis that behind every great man there is a great woman it can be stated that William and Ann Taylor are still having an influence for the good of all New Zealanders. If the Taylors had not built that cottage maybe Thomas Hollis Stace would never have settled in Pauatahanui in the first place. Oh what a tangled web our history is. 
However as outlined by the first speaker in this debate Darren Hughes the story of this bill begins when on 6 December 1856 by deed of trust Thomas Hollis Stace conveyed the land that is the burial ground to William Bromley Edward Bolton Thomas Hollis Stace William Jones and James Mitchell on specified trusts. The trusts included as has been mentioned to “permit a chapel to be built on the land for the religious worship by the Protestant denomination; and to permit the chapel to be used as a schoolhouse for the education of the children of the neighbourhood; and to permit land to be used as a public burial ground. The Deed of Trust also reserved for Thomas Hollis Stace and his heirs the exclusive right to use of part of the burial ground as a family plot.” 
There were a series of transfers after the Torrens system of land registration was introduced into New Zealand by the Land Transfer Act 1870 and there were also the Cemeteries Acts of 1882 and 1908. As Darren Hughes has said it was not until 11 May 1936 that the District Land Registrar for the Wellington Land Registration District issued for the burial ground a certificate of title 427/147. At the moment as has been mentioned the burial ground is full and there is no legal access to it. The control and management of the burial ground has been vested with the council since 4 June 2004 but nevertheless it remains subject to trusts and the certificate of title remains subject to caveat. So revenue cannot be raised for maintenance of this particular graveyard because there are no plots to sell. So this bill which confirms the vesting in Porirua City Council and provides for the status control and management of the Pauatahanui burial ground is only common sense. It also makes sense to—as the bill does—dissolve certain trusts established by the 1856 deed relating to the burial ground to extinguish certain interests of the Stace family in the burial ground and to provide for the maintenance inspection and records of the burial ground. 
However just a word of alert—and I think it was referred to a little bit by the first speaker—it is claimed that the descendants of the original owners all support the purposes of this bill. Now by this it is presumed we are talking about the descendants of Thomas Hollis Stace. By the very first speech it is quite clear that Thomas Hollis Stace was not the first owner. In fact prior to him Ngati Awa and Te Rangihaeata the nephew of Te Rauparaha obviously had some real interest in this particular land and when I hear the New Zealand Company mentioned I have to ask some questions about it. 
Everything about this bill is common sense but we are not told how the New Zealand Company acquired the land before it handed it on to Thomas Hollis Stace and New Zealand First wants to be assured through the select committee process that it was by fair means rather than foul. New Zealand First does not believe that we as a nation can go into the future where there continues to be genuine grievance from any one party. We want to ensure that this particular legislation will not create further grievance although I am not too certain that the tangata whenua would want the plot of land returned filled with Pakeha tupapaku. But if that concern is satisfied during the committee process then New Zealand First will be supporting this legislation all the way through. 
Sitting suspended from 5.57 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.