is an affiliate (as well as to the former Tainui Trust Board).²² As such, the Wai 96 claimants have not lodged separate closing submissions, relying instead on those of the Wai 100 claimants.²³ But we discuss the Wai 96 claim here because of its relationship with the other Ngai Tai claim, Wai 423.

Wai 423 was filed in December 1993 by Te Warena Taua and Emily Karaka on behalf of themselves, the Ngai Tai Ki Tamaki iwi, and the Ngai Tai Ki Tamaki Tribal Trust.²⁴ According to claimant counsel, ‘At its core the claim is about the loss of [ownership,] possession, authority and access to Ngai Tai lands and resources’. A natural flow-on effect of that loss has been a ‘diminution of Ngai Tai rangatiratanga and mana’.²⁵ Counsel submitted that ‘Today Ngai Tai own a remnant of their former lands. What remains in tribal title consists only of a few acres set aside for an urupa and Maori reservation.’²⁶

While Wai 96 focuses almost solely on issues of war and raupatu, the Wai 423 claimants also raise a number of issues discussed elsewhere in the report. They assert that the following events and processes contributed to Ngai Tai’s state of landlessness: pre-Treaty and pre-emption waiver transactions; Crown purchases to 1865; war and raupatu; Native Land Court title investigations and subsequent alienations; and public works takings.

(3) Wai no: Ngati Hei

Wai 110 was lodged in 1987 by Patricia McDonald and Ripeka Fleet on behalf of Ngati Hei and is described as ‘a comprehensive tribal claim that covers land, water and other matters of significance to the iwi’.²⁷ It also covers ‘taonga, namely land, rivers, foreshores, the Whitianga and Tairua Harbours and the sea within the Claimants’ rohe’, together with ‘wahi tapu, te reo Maori and the kaitiakitanga of hunting and fishing … resource management, conservation, rating and local government’. The claim also concerns ‘the Claimants’ tino rangatiratanga over and, where relevant, their ownership concerning their taonga’.²⁸ According to the statement of evidence of Peter Johnston, ‘Ngati Hei’s rohe in general terms runs from Matarangi south of Kennedy’s Bay to Tairua, and from the eastern Coromandel coast to the Coromandel divide, and out to the Mercury Islands’.²⁹ Mr Johnston stressed that the Kuaotunu 6 block, ‘a fraction of its original 621 acres’, is the last remnant of the Ngati Hei tribal estate.

22. Ibid, pp 3-4

23. Documents Y1, AA14

24. Claim 1.19; doc T20, p 3

25. Document T20, p 3; doc Y15, p 3

26. Document Y15, p 4, para 2.6 The relevant submissions and evidence in relation to the Wai 96 claim include documents A36-A40, A41, and A68, together with the closing submissions for the Wai 100 claim (doc Y1). The relevant submissions and evidence in relation to the Wai 423 claim include documents T20, T24, Y15, and AA10 Documents A46, C2, C5, T2, and T3 are relevant to both claims.

27. Claims 1.4, 1.4(c); doc Y9, p 4

28. Claim 1.4(c), p 2

29. Document N3, p 3