This report examines in detail the use made of Mangatawa hill for two major public works. The work which had the most damaging impact on the hill, which is sacred to Tauranga Maori, was the virtual destruction of Maungamana by the Ministry of Works. In 1946 the Crown, under the Public Works Act 1928, acquired a 5 acre area on the hill as a quarry site. The quarry was expanded in the 1950s and 1960s to supply the massive development work in the Bay of Plenty at that time. Strong resistance from the incorporation administering the land meant that agreements were made to grant the Crown the right to quarry for a 33 year period, and the owners were able to retain the freehold of the land. This process was repeated in the 1970s when the Mount Maunganui Borough Council wished to acquire the site on which it had built a water supply reservoir. Instead of selling the land, the owners negotiated a 999 year lease for the site of the present reservoir and another site for the construction of future reservoirs.

When considering the use made by the Crown of the Public Works Act, the Waitangi Tribunal has found that a failure to give adequate consideration to acquiring the leasehold rather than freehold of Maori land was inconsistent with the Crown’s duties under Article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi.⁹ It is very unusual to come across examples, such as those at Mangatawa, where the owners successfully avoided having the freehold of the land compulsorily acquired. However, it will be seen that even the negotiation of a lease has been the cause of dissatisfaction for the incorporation, who have recently been seeking ways to have those leases renegotiated or overturned. The concerns of the Incorporation regarding the quarry rights agreement were expressed in a 1989 draft statement of claim to the Waitangi Tribunal (the claim was never submitted as the incorporation continued negotiations with the Ministry of Works):

(a) Mangatawa is sacred to Maori, being the site of one of Tauranga’s most historic pas and the subject of some of its best known legends.

(b) Maori have viewed with concern and dismay the desecration of Mangatawa by quarrying over many years.

(c) The Mangatawa Papamoa Block Incorporation granted leases to the Ministry of Works for quarrying only after it had suffered compulsory quarrying by the Ministry over many years and then only because it was clear that, failing agreement, the Ministry would use its powers under the Public Works Act to quarry and remove metal from the land. The granting of leases was perceived to be the lesser of two evils

(d) Even though the Ministry of Works has undertaken to carry out restoration work at the end of the lease term the land can never be put back as it was.

(e) Mangatawa has provided rock and metal for the largest public works carried out in Tauranga over the last 30 years. It has been plundered for long enough.¹⁰

Although this report focuses on the most obvious impacts on Mangatawa hill, the quarry and the reservoir, the owners of the Mangatawa and Papamoa blocks have seen other areas of those blocks being used for public works. As well as land that has been

⁹ Waitangi Tribunal, The Turangi Township Report 1995, Wellington, Brookers Ltd, 1995, p 312

¹⁰ Draft statement of claim, 1989, Records of the Mangatawa-Papamoa Incorporation [pp 16-17 Document Bank]