The chair of the Ngati Rarua-Atiawa Trust, Paul Morgan, says there's still a lot of work needed before all issues over its land at Motueka are resolved.
The Government is to pay the trust $5 million in compensation for past rental losses on the Whakarewa lands, which came back to the trust in 1992 from the Anglican Church encumbered by perpetual leases under which less than fair rentals were paid to the Maori owners.
Mr Morgan told Waatea News that the issues are similar to the Taranaki leases that were covered by the 1997 Maori Reserved Land Act, only Ngati Rarua-Atiawa has not been able to get its leases reformed.
Because of that, he says, the Whakarewa lands generate little income for Ngati Rarua-Atiawa, despite being prime horticultural and urban commercial land around Motueka.
When he signed a memorandum of understanding with the iwi at Parliament on Wednesday, Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples said the payment would boost the iwi's ability to better manage and develop the Whakarewa lands.
