Significant land bought back by Ngāti Toa Rangatira
Ngāti Toa Rangatira has purchased 54 hectares of significant land at Whitireia from the Crown and Porirua City Council subject to a lease back to Radio New Zealand.
Whitireia holds deep significance to Ngāti Toa Rangatira. It was used as a kāinga and food-gathering place. In 1848, Ngāti Toa Rangatira gifted whenua at Whitireia to the Anglican Church on the understanding that a school would be built for their tamariki. No school was ever built and in 1850 the Church obtained a Crown grant to the land without the consent of the iwi. This led to Ngāti Toa rangatira and MP, Wiremu Parata, taking the famous 1877 court case against the Bishop of Wellington that the land should be returned to the original owners. Chief Justice Prendergast denied the claim and ruled that the Treaty of Waitangi was a “simple nullity.”
Over a century later and many years of negotiations, Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira has bought the land back. Radio New Zealand has used the site as a transmission site for over 80 years and will now lease the site.
Greenwood Roche’s Māori Business team led by Partner, Ranui Calman, assisted Ngāti Toa Rangatira with negotiations and documentation of the agreements for sale and purchase and leaseback to Radio New Zealand.
