Wall Louisa: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13725. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): It is my pleasure and privilege to speak on the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. I initially want to mihi to my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell for sponsoring this bill and also to thewhānau ofŌtamataha Trust engāhapū oNgāti Tapu meNgāiTamarāwahowhānau in Tauranga Moana whose lands will be returned to them [to the subtribes ofNgāti Tapu the family ofNgāiTamarāwaho in Tauranga]. My contribution really is to highlight that this continues to be part of New Zealand’s truth and reconciliation process. It highlights our colonisation history from the perspective of the missionaries’ contribution to creating relationships with tangata whenua which then eventuated in lands of tangata whenua being placed in such entities as the Church Missionary Society. I want to acknowledge that the society was established on 12 April 1799. In fact its mission was to spread the word of the Lord and the Gospel but it was also to go to parts of the world including Aotearoa New Zealand and create an asset base and a capital base that has meant that lands such as the land that is being returned via this private bill was taken so that the Church could establish itself.When looking at this piece of legislation and the history it is interesting to note that the Church made its first voyage here in 1814 via its representative Samuel Marsden. Over a period of 30 years what it did was establish itself to a point where it developed the relationship with tangata whenua which meant that it could give us blankets axes adzes trousers soap the New Testament scissors spades looking glasses razors handkerchiefs and tobacco. Those were the commodities that it gave us in exchange for our lands.What I want to acknowledge in that process is that from the beginning tangata whenua never treated it as a transaction. For us it was part of becoming Christians and part of that was having a relationship with the Church that meant it needed land to build its churches on. But what quickly happened was that we were displaced from a huge amount of land and so in terms of this specific experience what happened was that we are talking about close to 40000 square metres of central Tauranga land that in 1835 the Church purchased. What happened thereafter was continued dispute with the tangata whenua. The Crown intervened and in 1852 actually granted that land to the Church Missionary Society and in 1867 the Church Missionary Society in return gave the Crown 80 percent of the land that it had taken from tangata whenua. I find that really interesting because what we are talking about today is the return of 20 percent of the original piece of land that the Church Missionary Society had. So the tangata whenua get 20 percent back by virtue of this private bill but I am actually interested in the 80 percent that the Crown was gifted in 1867.But what I do want to acknowledge is that over a period of time the Church Missionary Society obviously developed a philosophy about this land and the fact that it needed to give it back to tangata whenua. So I want to acknowledge that from 1998 it replaced the trustees of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board with tangata whenua representatives and what this bill will do is ensure that those lands that property are transferred to theŌtamataha Trust. It will be a tangata whenua trust and it will benefit thehapū beneficiaries of that particular trust. Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker.