rights
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
New Zealand
Muldoon
dies
A former New Zealand prime minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, who did much to strengthen links between his country and the South Pacific died in an Auckland hospital on August 5. Sir Robert, who recently had heart surgery, had been re-admitted on August 4 for further tests.
Sir Robert impressed him self upon the public con sciousness in the 1970 s and ’Bos as few politicians before
him. He entered parliament in 1960, and was under-secretary to the minister of finance in 1967. Later the same year he took over as minister of finance.
Sir Robert became party leader after the National Party was ousted from government and took National to a landslide victory in 1975. His three terms as prime minister ended in 1984 when he miscalculated public opinion by calling an early election.
He resigned from power at the end of 1991, citing unhappiness over his inability to influence the government into more moderate policies. ***
Maori
rights
A sub-judicial tribunal in New Zealand has ruled a Maori tribe is entitled to a third of the country’s fisheries. The Waitangi Tribunal has announced the Ngai-Tahu tribe has exclusive fishing rights to the 12-mile coastal region surrounding South Island. The South Island area accounts for almost 55 per cent of New Zealand’s total catch. The tribunal, which advises the government on Maori tribal grievances related to the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi with the British Crown, said grievous and irreparable harm was done to the Ngai-Tahu people and their economy and culture by breaches to the treaty. The tribunal rulings are non-binding on the government but their judgements have in the past been used as the basis of negotiated settlements between the state and the tribes. If implemented, the decision could be worth up to SUS44O million a year.
But New Zealand’s prime minister, Jim Bolger, says it is unrealistic to expect all the wealth from the country’s rich South Island fisheries to be handed over to one tribe. Most of New Zealand’s $BOO million fishing catch is found in the waters around South Island. Bolger says the prospects of a small tribe of 20,000 people getting even a proportion of that wealth was of concern.
Muldoon: end of an era