Horan Brendan: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHoran Brendan: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 10 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15450. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRENDAN HORAN (Independent): Te whānau o Mokomoko tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā anō koutou katoa. I rise to support this bill the Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill. I feel very honoured to do so. Initially I was going to speak about the need for the apology within this bill but we hear the tūpuna singing and this is such a special special day. But I would ask the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations whether he could look further than large natural groupings when dealing with Māori claims. It is inappropriate for the whānau of Mokomoko to be included in Whakatōhea because this family suffered at the hands of many of Whakatōhea and other local tribes as well as well as the English. We see continually in our Māori Affairs Committee where people are unable to be heard because they are not recognised immediately as being part of a natural large grouping so those words need to be looked at. We need to get back to what is important. He tangata he tangata he tangata the people the people the people are what is important because it is our people. So I would ask the Minister to look at that and I would ask him to please meet with this family.Mokomoko—it has been said what an amazing man he was. If you look through Taranaki history you see that he is mentioned in Taranaki history because they recognise that not only did he help his own people but he would help anybody. As the Hon Tau Henare said and other speakers before 147 years is a long time to endure and Mokomoko and his descendants have endured like the great kauri. So today is such a special special day.I would like to talk just a little bit about the endurance of suffering. We can say “suffering” and it rolls off the tongue but we look at the East Coast today and I think about the 3000 acres that were confiscated from the Mokomoko family and what it meant to the descendants. What we see is that as Māori land was taken and rolled into blocks those Māori landowners who ruled supreme who were proud and who were at one with the land were suddenly serfs to European farmers who when they came here were starving and lived because of the generosity of Māori. These European farmers were able to graze their cattle. They were able to leverage off their land but Māori farmers were unable to. This has happened to nearly all Māori in the past 147 years. We see on the East Coast particular hardship because of this. I find it quite incredible that we have so many MPs from the East Coast and yet still there is such hardship there and we could not get even a little apology for this family.I will touch on the persecution of this family from the Māori side. That persecution is still alive and well today as the family well knows. But this restoration of character of mana and of reputation will ripple outward. Many of the family cannot see me but you can hear me and be assured that this will ripple out these words will ripple out throughout New Zealand and Manny can rest in peace and Mokomoko can rest in peace. As the Hon Shane Jones said taking that excerpt from his poem “Only then will I get peace and eternal rest …”. I would like to leave the Mokomoko family with best wishes from all parliamentarians from my family from my wife’s family out at Kutarere and with this poem from Tainui:Kia hora te marino. Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana. Kia tere te kārohirohi i mua i te huarahi.May the calm be widespread may the ocean be as smooth as greenstone and may the shimmer of light ever dance across your pathway forevermore. Kia ora.