Sharples Pita: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sharples Pita: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Maori Affairs)  
on behalf of the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: I move  
That the Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time 
. Tuatahi tena koutou Ngati Manuhiri Mook Laly Haddon koutou katoa kua haramai nau mai whakapiri mai. Nau mai mauria mai o koutou tini mate kia hui tahi ratou i konei kia mihia kia tangihia. Tino roa rawa tenei kereme na reira i tera wa i matemate mai etahi. Na reira tenei au e tangi atu ki a ratou. Nga mate katoa kua pa ki a koutou kua mauria ki ro Whare kia tu honohono me a matou mate haere okioki pai mai. Erangi ko te mea nui kua tae mai te kaupapa e whakahuihuitia tatou. He kaupapa ataahua na reira nau mai i tenei ra whakahirahira. Tena koutou tena koutou whakapiri mai. 
[ 
Firstly welcome Ngati Manuhiri Mook Laly Haddon and all of you who have arrived here welcome come closer. Welcome bring forth your many deaths so that they may gather here together to be acknowledged and mourned over. This claim has been going on over a very long period of time and some have passed away. This is why I mourn them. To all the deaths affecting you that you have brought inside the House to link up with ours depart rest there well. But the most important thing is that the matter that assembled us here has arrived. It is an attractive matter so welcome on this day of great significance. To you collectively welcome salutations come closer. 
] 
From the shores of Whangaparaoa in the south Paepae o Tu in the north from the western tides of Koritoti Otakamaitu through the currents of Te Awa o Hoteo flowing on to Kikitangiao Hauhanganui to the pa of Te Arai o Tahuhu. The children of Manuhiri the people of  
Moekaraka 
 waka. Ko Tamahunga te maunga ko nga Poito-o-te-kupenga-o-Toi-te-huatahi i te moana ko Ngati Manuhiri te hapu ko Omaha te marae. 
[ 
Tamahunga is the mountain Poito-o-te-kupenga-o-Toi-te-huatahi stretch across the sea Ngati Manuhiri is the subtribe and Omaha is the courtyard. 
] 
From the house of Te Kiri to the New Zealand House of Representatives he honore maku kia mihi atu ki a Ngati Manuhiri kua tae mai i tenei ra tena koutou [ 
it is an honour for me to pay tribute to Ngati Manuhiri who have arrived here today so well done 
]. 
It is an exciting time times like this when you can look out from the steps of Parliament on the beautiful Wellington morning that we have here and see kuia koroua and mokopuna heading into these buildings. When you see wheelchairs walkers prams—whatever—being wheeled into these buildings when you see the sight that greets you on these mornings then you know that the journey that these people are on has taken generations has taken sacrifice and grievance to reach us today. 
Their journey has seen many loved ones pass on. Their journey has seen unimaginable economic and social losses carved into generations of families. Their journey has seen great courage and conviction shown by generations of families. But by the end of this day their journey will finally see justice for the people of Ngati Manuhiri. 
Early contact with European settlers led to epidemic disease or rewharewha decimating the families of Ngati Manuhiri. Around 1840 Ngati Manuhiri held customary mana whenua rights over 250000 acres. Fifty years later 90 percent of their land was gone lost for ever. Today Ngati Manuhiri landholdings total—remember before it was 250000 acres—1300 acres. That land is fragmented and multiple-owned. In 2012 Ngati Manuhiri are all but landless in their own homelands. 
The Crown’s alienation of Ngati Manuhiri lands began soon after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. The forced Mahurangi and Omaha purchase saw thousands of hectares lost. Crown policies saw those lands they were left with individualised fragmented and uneconomic. Laws were passed that overnight turned Ngati Manuhiri descendants into trespassers on their own whenua. As dawn broke on 20 January 1896 police officers artillery men and Government officials landed on Te Hauturu-o-Toi Island and forcibly evicted the rangatira and the families of Ngati Manuhiri. 
The impacts arising from the Crown’s breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi have been carried over many years by generations of Ngati Manuhiri people tae noa ki te ropu e huihui mai i te ra nei [ 
including the group that is gathered here today 
]. 
Without the land and resources to take ownership of their own destiny generations of Ngati Manuhiri people’s rights their right to determine their own economic and social well-being were denied. This land loss this landlessness meant that the right of Ngati Manuhiri to uphold their own mana motuhake to exercise their own rangatiratanga was denied. 
As we stand together this morning the Crown alongside Manuhiri we look back through time and see this injustice this suffering. All those things Ngati Manuhiri families have lost due to the actions of the Crown can never be totally replaced. And yet the people of Ngati Manuhiri are here today to settle their grievances with the Crown with mana and with honour. The people of Ngati Manuhiri are looking ahead towards their future and it is a bright one. It is a future that will focus on restoring the economic environmental social and cultural health of nga uri o Ngati Manuhiri. 
From this day on Ngati Manuhiri seek the right to take ownership of their destiny their own destiny to determine their own economic social and cultural well-being. With the support of the Crown Ngati Manuhiri seeks the right to uphold their own mana motuhake to exercise their own rangatiratanga. To quote the Ngati Manuhiri whakatauki that encapsulates their mana whenua mana moana bonds to their rohe: e wha tawhara ki uta he kiko tamure ki tai. From the flowering kiekie on our lands to the flesh of the snapper deep in our waters our fortune our future for ever. 
Na reira tena koutou. He mihi whakamutunga maku ki a koutou i tenei ra nui kua tae a-tinana mai koutou harikoa te ngakau kia tu au ki te mihi ki a koutou i tenei ra. Tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou. 
[ 
So congratulations. A closing comment from me to you who have arrived here personally on this great day is to say how pleased I am to rise and welcome you here today. Greetings acknowledgments and salutations to you and to us collectively. 
]