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WAIRARAPA MOANA INCORPORATION WAITANGI TRIBUNAL TREATY CLAIM CLAIM NUMBER: WAI 85
The Claim
WAIRARAPA MOANA INCORPORATION (The claimant) represents the descendants and rightful successors of the persons entitled to the land at Mangakino.
This land was originally vested in Wairarapa Maori pursuant to Proclamation dated 14 April 1916, the land was then known as Pouakani (Wairarapa Maoris) Block.
This constitutes the land at Mangakino held by the Incorporation and other land which have passed out of the hands of the owners, including land which has passed to the Crown. (See Schedule for legal description of the land originally vested.)
Kingi Winiata Smiler; Statement of Claim 2003
Schedule
All that part of the lands estates forests and fisheries described in the proclamation dated 14 April 1916 and referring to the Pouakani (Wairarapa Maoris) Block, situated on the southern bank of the Waikato River at Mangakino, together with common law rights to the centre line of the river, the land now remaining in the names of the beneficial owners being previously held through Pouakani 2 Trust established by order of the Maori Land Court under section 438 of the Maori Affairs Act 1953 such order being dated 9 March 1983 and in the name of The Proprietors of Mangakino Township Incorporation a Maori incorporation established under the Maori Affairs Amendment Act 1967 and incorporated by order of the Maori Land Court on 14 May 1956, and now being held in the name of the Incorporation, re-named Wairarapa Moana Ki Pouakani Incorporation. J G Stevens, Counsel for claimant - 14 April 2003
The History
The history of the alienation of Wairarapa Moana, the prized taonga of Mäori of southern Wairarapa and of the land around the lakes was the result of a long and determined effort by the Crown to first gain access to the region through land purchases, and then attempt to control the actions of the lakes. After almost 40 years effort resisting the endeavours of a small number of local settlers and successive governments, Mäori of Wairarapa were eventually separated, at least in law, from their lands and their lakes.
One of the more lamentable results of the eventual loss of the lakes was that Mäori of Wairarapa did not, as agreed when Wairarapa Moana was gifted to the nation, receive land near the lakes in compensation for their loss. Rather, they were allocated land in an entirely different area of the country, in the Pouakani block in the King Country, within the heart of another rohe.
History of the Alienation of the Wairarapa Moana by Therese Crocker 2005
The land was remote from the Wairarapa and initially had no rail access or infrastructure support and as a result the beneficial owners were generally unable to obtain access to the land, nor were they aware of its condition.
The land was initially not capable of sustaining pastoral farming until the farm development schemes that were initiated in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Other than an economically and socially disadvantageous native timber cutting contract, the land was of no benefit to the beneficial owners until the development of the hydro electric power generation and its associated infrastructure.Kingi Winiata Smiler; Statement of Claim 2003
Inquiry District: WAI 863
The Wairarapa ki Tararua inquiry district covers the area from the Manawatu Gorge down the ranges to the South Wairarapa coast, up the Pacific coast to north of Cape Turnagain following the Tararua District council boundary to north of Norsewood and down the Ruahine Ranges to the Gorge.
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