Anglican Church to apologise for takeover of Māori land in Bay of Plenty

Friday, 30 November 2018

Anglican Archbishop David Moxon will issue the apology to Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho on December 1.

Tauranga was built atop a broken promise from Anglican Church missionaries and iwi when they sold 540-hectares of land they did not own.

Now, 152 years later, the Archbishop Emeritus Sir David Moxon will issue a formal apology to Ngati Tapu and Ngaitamarawaho of Tauranga Moana for the actions of the missionaries when they gifted the Te Papa peninsula to the Crown.

The 540 hectare piece of land encompasses modern-day Tauranga's CBD and was purchased in 1838 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and had to be used for the 'benefit of the native race and the church'.

Dr Alistair Reese says Bay of Plenty maori are owed an apology from the Anglican Church.

This included building schools and other shared facilities.

* The Treaty and Me: 60 seconds down the camera

* The vast scale of what was lost to Māori when NZ was made**

'It was not sale in which you could do what you liked,' Moxon said. 'It was more like a gift.

'Built into this was an understanding that if you changed the purpose of what the land was being used for you must give it back. For about 20 years that deal went down really well then in 1860 the Land Wars came along.

'The tribes had wanted a win-win.'

After the New Zealand Wars missionaries were pressured into giving up the land to the Crown. Moxon said missionaries had initially refused, but finally caved to pressure fearing the land would be requisitioned.

Four-fifths of the land was gifted to the Crown with the remaining one-fifth kept by the Church. The land kept by the Church was sold off a few years later.

The buildings that would shape Tauranga sprang up atop the the land 'reserved for native purposes' including the first Town Hall.

The formal apology from the Anglican Church follows the publishing of a report by Otago University's Dr Alistair Reese. He said an apology was needed for 'their role in the alienation of Te Papa' as a result of the land sale.

Reese said hapu lost economic benefits as well as mana. The public apology was a vital step in the healing process.

'It is my recommendation that the church in Tauranga Moana and the mission agencies with historical association to Te Papa, especially CMS, follow the Crown example and apologise for their role in the alienation of Te Papa,' he said in the report.

'This apology is not only representative in the context of their spiritual ancestors, but also a present apology and acknowledgment that the church has been silent for generations re the historic injustices.'

The Crown has acknowledged the land on the Te Papa Peninsula was included within the confiscation district, and was conveyed to the Crown by a private institution despite this institution previously insisting that it would always hold this land for the benefit of Māori.

The Government has made an apology to both Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāi Te Rangi for the raupatu. Minimal land was returned as only that which is under Crown control could be included within the settlement process.

Moxon said the church had apologised to iwi but on December 1 they will be making that apology formal and public.

'What we want is a redemptive outcome and so do the tribes,' he said.

'We hope some measure of restorative justice is achieved that will bring benefit to Tauranga.

'It might be the best thing for Tauranga. What the tribes' want, we will support.'