Tirikatene Rino: Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:4007. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
Tena koe. Ka nui te ora tena koe e te Kaiwhakamana. Ki a koutou e te manuhiri tuarangi NgatiMakino tena koutou nau mai hara mai whakatau mai ki te Paremata e takatu nei tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
Thank you. I am very well and thank you Mr Speaker. Salutations to you the visitors from afar NgatiMakino welcome and draw closer to Parliament standing here ready; acknowledgments to you all greetings 
.] 
It is with honour that I rise as an elected member to a Maori seat Te Tai Tonga to carry on the mahi of the hundreds of Maori who have since the 1860s been coming here to Poneke to carry on the take of their whanau and hapu to Parliament. So it is an absolute pleasure to be here today. I am delighted to be able to share in this occasion with Ngati Makino. 
But there have been some low points. I am reminded of Wi Parata a former member of this House whose case against the Bishop of Wellington was thrown out by Judge Prendergast who claimed that the Treaty of Waitangi was a nullity. Thank goodness those remarks are consigned to nothing more than the Law 101 lectures. 
Today for Ngati Makino the Treaty of Waitangi displays its power. The mana that was intended by Hobson and the chiefs of Niu Tireni all those years ago in 1840 will today acknowledge the past wrongs of the Crown over Ngati Makino. 
As a new member of this House I have left it to my senior colleagues to tell this Whare of the mana of these people the Ngati Makino but may I rise to make just a point or two. It always amazes and saddens me when I hear stories of hapu and iwi who decided for their own valid reasons to side with the Crown and yet still had land confiscated by that taniwha known as raupatu Pakeha. The Ngati Makino tried as best they could to stay out of the fracas between the Crown and Waikato but when the conflict came to the Bay of Plenty this proud iwi had to make a decision that many hapu and iwi up and down the motu at that time had to make—whom to side with. Inevitably Ngati Makino was split and with that split the Crown managed not only to undermine the authority of Ngati Makino but also to use that split as a show of disloyalty and like a dog chewing a bone they therefore punished Ngati Makino with raupatu by pen and paper. Talk about a loyal employer!  
Another point is survey costs. Like I mentioned in debate on the Maraeroa A and B Blocks bills the hoary old subject of colonial survey fees has raised its head amongst yet another iwi and hapu of Aotearoa with Ngati Makino. That same modus operandi was employed by the Crown throughout the country and it is a sad indictment of the State the Crown and Pakeha thinking of the day. That thinking was: “Get Maori into debt with the Crown and when they cannot pay off that debt with money they can pay it back with land and then they can sell it to the only entity that is able buy the land.” You guessed it: it was the Government of New Zealand. That was the same story that we had with Maraeroa A and B Blocks earlier this morning—the same method of operation employed by the Crown. 
Was it enough to come up with legislation that made the Crown the only entity able to purchase the land? No no it went further than that. It came up with a judicial system that would allow the alienation of Maori land but to sell there must be a title and to have a title there must be a survey and to get the survey and title someone had to get paid. It was a sweet operation: get Maori to alienate their land and to pay for that privilege. Once the lands of Ngati Makino swept from the lakeshores of Rotoiti Rotoehu and Rotoma down to the coast at Maketu and Pukehina and Otamarakau and Hauone and Pikowai to just a little east of the Tarawera River. By 1890 Ngati Makino were virtually landless. Nearly 448000 acres were alienated the majority due to Crown purchasing techniques. Even land at Otamarakau and Whakarewa—reserves deemed inalienable—were sold. And if that was not enough the iwi suffered further land loss with the use of that terrible taniwha known as the Public Works Act. Of those 448000 acres approximately 0.6 percent as we have been told remain in tribal hands. 
In contrast to that chequered and dark past we now come to today and we have come a long way. The people of this small but proud iwi will be able in some measure to leave behind those grievances and start out with a new and fresh mandate. 
May I just finish and acknowledge my colleagues on the Maori Affairs Committee under the capable chairmanship of my whanaunga Tau—the Hon Tau Henare—and also the fellow members of the committee. It has been a real honour and privilege to be able to guide this pire—these settlements—through the House and to be speaking at this its final reading. I would like to also acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and his officials and most important the people of Ngati Makino who have worked hard to bring this bill the Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill to fruition. I mihi to you all and I just wish you all the very best for the future. I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora tatou. 
Bill read a third time. 
Karanga 
Waiata 
Haka