The economic impact

We have a lot of evidence about the social impact of land loss on indigenous peoples as the result of land seizures by their colonisers.

In this country alone there’s a plethora of wellresearched and reviewed reports of negative statistics for Ma¯ori in health, housing, education, justice and employment.

But there is hardly any similar research and reportage on the economic losses involved.

In 2012, Te Ru¯nanga-a¯-Iwi o

Nga¯ti Kahu commissioned Dr

Ganesh Nana, Kel Sanderson and Adrian Slack, of BERL Economics, to assess the economic loss suffered by Nga¯ti Kahu as a result of Crown actions or omissions up to

1865, the loss having as its main cause separation of Nga¯ti Kahu from our lands.

To quantify the prejudice suffered as a consequence of those seizures, BERL used as their measure the 249,443.5 acres of Nga¯ti Kahu land seized by the Crown in the period up to 1865.

The fundamental economic components of their assessment were the loss of capital value, and the loss of the flow of incomes from those lands since 1865.

This week we will look at the loss of capital value to Nga¯ti Kahu of our lands by taking the actual level of the recorded ‘consideration’ the Crown paid for them over the period 1856 to 1865, comparing those with the land values at that time, and noting the difference (shortfall) between the two.

Using information from the New Zealand Official Year Book, BERL calculated the average value (in today’s dollars) of 100 acres of unimproved land in the Mango¯nui County at various dates in the past are: 1840: 100 acres sold for $12.93; 1865: 100 acres sold for $15.31; 1878: 100 acres sold for $17.81; 1891: 100 acres sold for $21.58.

Using these figures, BERL was then able to assess that the total 249,443.5.5 acres (100,944.8 hectares) of seized Nga¯ti Kahu lands would have been valued at £32,252 ($64,504) in 1840, £35,936 ($71,872) in 1856, £38,189 ($76,378) in 1865, £44,414 ($88,828) in 1878, and £53,825 ($107,650) in 1891. The full details for each Nga¯ti Kahu land block seized can be read on www.docdroid.net/XWkaxHo/06-august2012-berl-report-for-ngati-kahu-oneconomic-impact-of-crown-breaches-ofte-tiriti.pdf, but for the sake of space, I provide only these global figures: Total land loss between the pre-Treaty period and 1865 — 249,444 acres; ‘consideration’ paid — £7204; value at date of loss — £35,972; shortfall at date of land loss — £28,768; value of shortfall compounded to 1865 — £39,919. These show that there was a significant loss of capital value imposed on Nga¯ti Kahu by the Crown. Next week we will look at the loss to Nga¯ti Kahu of the streams of income from the above lands for the period from 1865 until 2012.

"These [figures] show that there was a significant loss of capital value imposed on Nga¯ ti Kahu by the Crown. "