An 1100 acre piece of land in the Hawkes Bay is one case in point, Sir Graham says.

"Recent evidence heard at the Hawkes Bay claim of Ngati Pahauwera found that lands purchased from the tribe in the 1860s wrongly included 1,152 acres between the Waihua and Mohaka blocks which local Maori wished to retain."

"When the error was pointed out at the time by a Ngati Pahauwera chief, Crown officials investigated the matter and concluded that a mistake had indeed been made. This was never publicly acknowledged, and the land simply remained in Crown ownership, until the Crown onsold it to a European settler."

Sir Graham says a substantial part of the Mohaka forest was subsequently planted in pine trees and became part of the Mohaka forest which the Government sold cutting rights toT/n 1989.

"What is particularly alarming is that lawyers from the Crown Law Office made no comment in response to this evidence when it was presented to the Tribunal by claimant historian David Alexander. They simply turned a deaf ear to evidence they didn't like the sound of. They seem to have confined it to the 'too hard' basket."

Sir Graham says the Crown Forestry Rental Trust knows of other land around the country which is customary Maori land.

Some of this land is under Department of Conservation control and needs to be returned to its rightful owners, and should be exempt from the claims process Sir Graham says.

"The Crown, having regard to the interests of both the claimants and the forestry company who purchased the cutting rights in good faith, should lose no time in clarifying its position - particularly whether it agrees that it never legitimately acquired the land."

ENDS....