A few facts

I would like to help Catherine Murupaenga-Ikenn out with a few facts.

1) Nothing was stripped from anybody in Aotearoa, because no such place exists, or existed. There is no reference to it in the 1835 Declaration of Independence or the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

2) The chiefs sold most of New Zealand’s land, evidenced by hundreds of Turtons Deeds. Only approximately 1.5 million acres (2.3 per cent) of New Zealand’s land mass of 66 million acres remained legally confiscated (from a few rebelling tribes) after 1928.

3) No home owner is compensated for the increased value of properties they once owned. Why should tribes be compensated? The land was minus forest cover, burnt off by earlier Maori generations to flush out game, there were no towns, roads, farms. There was no development whatsoever. The land only started to grow in value as settlers invested capital and labour, developing farms, building roads, towns, industry, schools, hospitals. Anyone who thinks