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This report is in response to claims relating to the development, finalisation, and implementation in the 1960s of the Tarawera Forest joint-venture scheme, a tripartite forestry scheme involving private enterprise (originally Tasman Pulp and Paper Company Limited), the Crown, and several thousand Maori. In essence, the claims assert that the Crown secured the involvement of the Maori participants in the scheme by means which were in breach of Treaty principles and which caused them prejudice. The relevant Treaty principles are those of active protection and partnership. The claimed prejudice is, first, the unnecessary and non-consensual loss from Maori ownership of more than 38,000 acres of land, including the sacred maunga Putauaki and, secondly, the loss of financial benefits that, it is said, should have been obtained from the joint venture by the Maori participants but were not.

The primary group of claimants (the Wai 411 claimants) represent the former owners of the 38,000 acres of Maori land and the current shareholders and debenture stock holders of Maori Investments Limited (MIL). MIL is a holding company created in 1968 for the specific purpose of administering the 10.8 percent stake in Tarawera Forests Limited (TFL) that was obtained by the former owners of the Maori land in return for contributing their land to the venture. Supporting the Wai 411 claim but focusing specifically on the loss of ownership of Putauaki were the Ngati Awa (Wai 46) claimants. The other claim reported on here (Wai 872) was made by an individual Wai 411 claimant during the course of the Tribunal's hearing.

A key feature of the Tarawera Forest joint venture was that ownership of the land contributed by the three venturers passed to TFL in return for a stake in that company. The claimants' land loss grievance rests on their view that the owners of the Maori land would have much preferred to lease it than lose title to it, and that a lease could have been achieved in place of the joint venture if only the Crown had acted consistently with its duty actively to protect Maori interests. Instead, the claimants allege, the Crown put its own interests ahead of those of the Maori landowners and secured their involvement in the joint venture by a variety of unfair tactics, the effect of which was that the Maori owners did not sufficiently understand or consent to the venture's terms. The sense of grievance that surrounds the loss from Maori to private ownership of such a large area of land, including the taonga Putuaki, is exacerbated by the fact that the Tarawera Forest joint-venture has proved to be a 'one-off' scheme. All other forestry projects utilising Maori land have involved leases, and some have enabled the Maori lessors to own the forest on their land at the end of the lease's term.

The claimant's second grievance is that the joint venture has not given to the Maori participants the returns promised to those who knew of it, let alone the returns that they claim would have been obtained if the venture had been negotiated fairly. At the heart of this grievance, too, is the view that the Crown put its own interests first and, by various unfair tactics, ensured that the Maori landowners became party to a venture on terms that were not to their greatest advantage.

The nature of the claims has required the Tribunal to undertake a detailed examination of the events surrounding the development and implementation of the Tarawera Forest joint venture. The first issue is the fairness, in terms of the Crown's obligations to protect Maori interests, of the process by which the joint venture was conceived and became a reality. The second issue is the attitude of the Crown throughout that process. We have found that the process followed in establishing the joint venture was inconsistent with what the Treaty principle requires of the Crown. We have also found, however, that the Crown was not motivated by bad faith in that process. Further, we are satisfied that the two claimant groups have been prejudiced by the loss of ownership of the former Maori land and the sacred mountain, and that the financial returns to MIL from the joint venture do not offset that loss. We are not satisfied, however, that the claimants have lost financial benefits due to them from their participation in the joint venture. Finally, we consider that the prejudice resulting from the loss of land ownership requires redress from the Crown, and we have made recommendations on that matter at the conclusion of this report.

The Maori Electoral Option Report concerns the exercise by Māori of the Māori electoral option under section 76 of the Electoral Act 1993, by which Māori may elect whether to register on the Māori roll or the general roll. In 1986, the Royal Commission on the Electoral System had noted that:

Although they were not set up for this purpose, the Māori seats have nevertheless come to be regarded by Māori as an important concession to, and the principal expression of, their constitutional position under the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Crown had provided certain funding and services to Māori to assist them to promote the enrolment of their people and to gain an understanding of the nature and implications of the choice they are required to make. The claim, brought by Hare Wakakaraka Puke on behalf of himself and those iwi and other Māori authorities that attended a Māori electoral option hui at Turangawaewae in January 1994, questioned the adequacy of the funding in terms of the Crown's Treaty of Waitangi obligations. The claim was also supported by the National Māori Congress, the New Zealand Māori Council, and the Māori Women's Welfare League.

Urgency was accorded the hearing of this claim as the two-month period during which Māori were required to exercise their electoral option ran from 15 February to 14 April 1994. The report was released on 14 February 1994.

The Tribunal of Professor Gordon Orr (presiding), Brian Corban, Professor Keith Sorrenson, Makarini Temara, Keita Walker, and Hepora Young found that the present level of funding was substantially less than would be reasonably required to meet the Crown's Treaty obligations to protect Māori citizenship rights:

The right of political representation has now been enhanced by the Electoral Act 1993 and the evidence before us strongly suggests that the present rights are highly prized. The Tribunal considers that … if adequate funding is not provided for both a vigorous kanohi ki te kanohi and a targeted mass media programme to ensure that as many Māori as possible are enrolled and exercise an informed choice then Māori will be seriously prejudiced.

The Crown conveyed its decision to the Tribunal on 1 March 1994, stating that Cabinet had declined to follow the recommendations contained in the report. This decision was made after a consideration of the extent and nature of the Crown's involvement in voter education activities as part of the electoral reform process.

Claim Wai 414 was lodged in January 1994 by Haki Wihongi on behalf of himself and the Te Whanau o Waipareira Trust, of which he was the chairperson. The trust had been established by Te Whanau o Waipareira, a non-tribal Maori community based in west Auckland, in order to provide effective social services and to lead the community's efforts to help itself. The claim alleged that the Crown, through the Community Funding Agency of the Department of Social Welfare, had failed to recognise the special status of Te Whanau o Waipareira as a Maori organisation and had failed to properly consult and deal with it in accordance with the Crown's obligations under article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Tribunal constituted to hear the claim was made up of Joanne Morris (presiding), Sir John Ingram, Sir Hugh Kawharu, Pamela Ringwood, and Hepora Young, and it sat five times between August 1991 and April 1995 to hear evidence and submissions.

John Tamihere of the trust described the claim as being:

essentially about fairness, due process and equality of opportunity. It is about our right as a pan-tribal wha-nau in the urban area to be acknowledged as a Treaty partner and our right as urban Maori to organise ourselves in accordance with our own tikanga to address our own problems our way.

Dr Pita Sharples noted that:

Waipareira is the appropriate organisation to administer and deliver services and create responsibility and hope and dreams amongst our people in West Auckland. We are better suited to know our needs and to deal with them than any government organisation. That is what the claim is saying.

The members of Te Whanau o Waipareira were not all linked by kinship, and most lived outside the traditional territories of the tribes from which they were descended. The claim thus broke new ground by contending that a non-tribal group of Maori had rights under the Treaty. According to claimant counsel, at its heart the claim said that ‘the rights and interests of urban Maori, separated from, distanced from and disenfranchised from the home iwi, are rights which fall properly within the Treaty of Waitangi’.

The Te Whanau o Waipareira Report was released in Auckland on 6 July 1998. In it, the Tribunal upheld the trust's claim that Te Whanau o Waipareira was prejudiced by policies and operations of the Community Funding Agency, and it found that, if a Maori community exercised rangatiratanga, then it deserved special recognition in terms of the Treaty:

Rangatiratanga, in this context, is that which is sourced to the reciprocal duties and responsibilities between leaders and their associated Maori community. It is a relationship fundamental to Maori culture and identity and describes a leadership acting not out of self-interest but in a caring and nurturing way with the people close at heart, fully accountable to them and enjoying their support … The principle of rangatiratanga appears to be simply that Maori should control their own tikanga and taonga, including their social and political organisation, and, to the extent practicable and reasonable, fix their own policy and manage their own programmes.

In examining this claim, the Tribunal said that it was important to read all parts of the Treaty together in order to understand it, instead of trying to interpret the separate words and articles of the texts. It rejected the argument that only 'traditional iwi' are the Crown's Treaty partners, saying that the Treaty was for the protection and benefit of all Maori:

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed by rangatira of hapu, on behalf of all Maori people, collectively and individually. Therefore, conversely, protective benefits and rights of autonomy in terms of the Treaty are not limited to traditional tribal communities.

The Tribunal also found that the Treaty partnership made the Crown accountable to Maori for the outcomes of its social and welfare policies. Waipareira's efforts to provide better integrated and coordinated programmes were frustrated by its having to deal with many different Crown agencies, each with its own policies and procedures.

The Tribunal recommended that, in developing and applying policy for the delivery or funding of social services to Maori, the Department of Social Welfare and the Community Funding Agency deal with any Maori community that had demonstrated its capacity to exercise rangatiratanga in welfare matters and that social and welfare services to Maori communities stand as a separate output class designed to promote community development. It also recommended that there be better consultation and a greater devolution of decision-making power and resources to Waipareira in particular and a greater reporting of the outcomes for Maori of the Government's social policies:

We reminded ourselves that the intent of the Treaty was something like a marriage of two nations, two cultures, who wanted to share a house which they planned to build together, accommodating each other's needs with respect and goodwill, for their mutual benefit. …

The success of a marriage depends not on the ability of the parties to formulate or interpret vows advantageously to themselves, nor on their ability to enforce them in the case of dispute. Rather, it depends on their commitment to work through problems in a spirit of goodwill, trust, and generosity, actively seeking creative solutions, and taking opportunities to bolster each other.