without the board’s consent, or the legal authority of the Crown.¹¹⁸ In the early 1960s Lands and Survey had refused to allow licences to be issued to people wanting to extract sand from this area of the Bay of Plenty. The Crown’s own reports indicated that the area was particularly vulnerable to foreshore erosion. Nevertheless, permission was given to remove sand from the Bowentown domain because the area was described as ‘overburden’, or surplus to requirements. At the time, both the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the assistant engineer favoured sand extraction because the area was well grassed and therefore, they thought no problem with erosion would result.¹¹⁹

By the 1970s erosion had become a problem, and it would appear that the board was failing to exercise any control over the sand extraction operations. In 1976 the following comments were made:

Quarrying is still being carried out. Sand is being removed by Taylor Brothers and other operators for commercial purposes. The borrow pit is immediately behind and encroaching into the foredune… .

It would appear that no formal agreement exists authorising Taylor Brothers from the Bowentown Reserve. The agreement by which the licensee operates was not signed by the Domain Board, and furthermore, it was drawn up for a period of time greater than the one year permitted by the Mining Act 1971. The method of controlling the sand taking appears to be very lax, with no check on who takes sand or from where it is taken in the pit. Royalty payments have been haphazard and under the present system there is no way of checking their accuracy.

An industrial activity within the confines of the reserve is in conflict with the purpose of a recreational reserve. The effects of the sand removal operation could be very harmful to the environment by way of promoting erosion of the foredunes. It is strongly recommended that the quarrying operation be immediately stopped and that the area be landscaped, replanted and developed as a car park to serve visitors to the ocean beach.²²⁰

So cavalier was the board’s approach to administering the licence that it was eventually only time and pressure from outside groups, such as the Conservation Council, that saw the end of sand extraction from the domain in 1978. This whole episode was about gathering revenue, a situation that was exacerbated and fed by building programmes within the Bay of Plenty and the domain itself, as the sand removed was used in construction and development works. Although there is no written record in the files of the government department or local body of Maori concerns over sand removal and damage to the foredunes, the claimants may wish to address this matter in their submissions to the tribunal, particularly if the erosion damaged any wahi tapu sites in the dunes.

In 1994 two initiatives reflected a changing attitude towards resource management. In April the Project Crimson Trust determined on a pohutukawa re-establishment programme and Bowentown became a site for planting. In November, Wayne

¹¹⁸ Engineer’s Assistant for draft of a Management Plan for Bowentown Domain and Reserves, June 1976, Katikati Domain Records, WBoPDC

¹¹⁹ Commissioner of Crown Lands to Head Office Reserves Committee, 5 September 1966, LS 3/2/40

¹²⁰ Engineer’s Assistant for draft of a Management Plan for Bowentown Domain and Reserves, June 1976, Katikati Domain Records, WBoPDC

¹²¹ Project Crimson Funding Application to Project Crimson Trust, 26 April 1994, Katikati Domain Records, WBoPDC