Land rights or coalmines?

Confusion lands Government in hot water.

By Robin Bromhy

WELLINGTON IS discovering

that its own Maori land rights

policy is thwarting several

major policy initiatives. The latest such development is the plan by the Tainui Maori Trust Board to seek an injunc tion against the sale of the state-owned coal mines in the Waikato region, south of Auckland.

The Coal Corporation of New Zea land (Coalcorp), which produces 75 per cent of the nation’s coal, is one of several state-owned enterprises up for sale, and the Government is expecting about SNZIOO million from the sale.

Its mines are clustered in three areas, one of which, around Huntly in the Waikato, produces 920,000 tonnes of Coalcorp’s total annual output of 1.5 million tonnes for power stations, firing the NZ Steel plant and for in dustrial users in the north. It is the

key asset of Coalcorp.

The Tainui people have filed in

junction papers with the High Court in Wellington, based on the fact that land they are claiming includes the five mines at Huntly and untapped re serves. The tribe is interested in both

retrospective and future royalties.

Figures suggest that the Tainui peo ple may claim as much as 47,000 nee tares in the Waikato, including the coal mines, Crown land and farmland valued at SNZ74 million.

Both the High Court hearing and the Tainui claim before the Waitangi Tribunal could delay the sale of Coal corp for months, if not years. For its part, the Government is anxious to sell Coalcorp as part of its strategy of rais ing funds to help pay off the country’s massive foreign dent. However, tne Tainui tribe has hinted that it may be

prepared to negotiate directly with the

Government ratner waiting for it to be heard as part of the Waitangi Tribun al claim.