claims would be heard in one inquiry. Judge Heta Hingston was appointed presiding officer for the inquiry and Sir Monita was appointed a member at the same time.⁹ Although this inquiry was envisaged as one that would focus on raupatu claims, several claims relating to non-raupatu issues were lodged soon after the decision was made to proceed to a hearing, and these were also included in the inquiry. Judge Hingston chaired several judicial conferences with the claimants and initiated the commissioning of the research necessary to begin hearing the claims. But, owing to several other large inquiries being in hearing during the mid-1990s, hearings on the Tauranga claims did not begin until 1998.

In August 1997, a new Tribunal was constituted to hear the Tauranga claims. The appointed members were Judge Richard Kearney (presiding), the Honourable Dr Michael Bassett, John Clarke, Areta Koopu, and Professor Keith Sorrenson.¹⁰ Sir John Turei provided assistance to the Tribunal as a kaumatua adviser until his death in early 2003.

The Tauranga Moana inquiry was held under the Tribunal’s now standard practice of grouping claims within a district into one research and hearing programme. As the Tribunal’s Business Strategy 1999 put it:

In broad terms, the Waitangi Tribunal’s strategy is to group overlapping historical and contemporary claims for research and hearing on a district basis. Having regard to the common history, geography, land blocks, tribal groupings, and number and extent of claims, the Tribunal finalises a district and prepares a research casebook. Research for the casebook is carried out by the claimants, the Tribunal, and the Crown Forestry Rental Trust.¹¹

This ‘casebook method’ of inquiry required a Tribunal member to certify that the research reports included in the casebook addressed the principal issues relating to the inquiry and were of sufficient quality for the hearings to proceed. On 3 July 1997, Professor Sorrenson certified approval of the Tauranga casebook.

1.3.1 The hearings

The first Tauranga Moana Tribunal hearing was held at Huria (Judea) Marae from 23 to 27 February 1998. At this hearing, the Tribunal heard tangata whenua evidence from representatives of the Tauranga claimant groups and expert evidence from three professional researchers: Professor (now Dame) Evelyn Stokes, Vincent O’Malley, and Dr Hazel Riseborough. Over the next 3½ years, 12 hearings were held at marae around Tauranga and at Te Puke and Paeroa to hear evidence from the claimants. The dates and venues of these

9. Paper 2.14

10. Paper 2.110

11. Waitangi Tribunal Business Unit, Waitangi Tribunal Business Strategy 1999 (Wellington: Waitangi Tribunal Business Unit, 1999), p 10