Descendants of Sir Maui Pomare are locked in dispute over potential subdivision of land near Plimmerton in Wellington, fifty years after death of his widow and with final resolution of his estate unresolved.
Born near Urenui in Taranaki; educated at Te Aute College in the 1890s: Sir Maui joined that pupil cohort now celebrated for their leadership roles in both Maori and Pakeha cultures. Widely remembered as the first Maori to qualify as a doctor, with qualifications from American Medical Missionary College in Chicago, and his subsequent appointment as Minister of Health in the 1920s, he was deeply involved in early political campaigns seeking redress for Maori land confiscations.
A century on, and several generations later, control over inheritance of his own Maori landholdings divides his descendants.
Of Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Toa descent, Sir Maui held at date of his death in 1930 interests in Maori customary land situated in Taranaki, Chatham Islands and Wellington. Commercially, his land in Wellington is the most valuable; ripe for residential development.
As is custom, Sir Maui’s traditional landholdings came to be divided between his two surviving children: Te Rakaherea and Ana.
The Maori Land Court was told of long-running hostility within his family.
Focus of the dispute is use of two buildings on the Wellington land, variously rented out or used rent-free by whanau.
One of Sir Maui’s grandsons told the Court of deep sadness at being shunned by his brother’s family, stating he had effectively been expelled from family land.
Wider whanau discussions about potential development of the land in Wellington have been stymied by a number of Te Rakaherea’s descendants, adamant that a decades-long family arrangement meant they could occupy the land rent-free, provided they paid rates levied on the land. This claim to rent-free occupation was buttressed by claims that hundreds of thousands of dollars spent upgrading the buildings was an investment made only on an understanding of continued occupation.
Representatives from both branches of Sir Maui’s family applied to the Maori Land Court for creation of an ahu whenua trust.
Permitted by the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act, these trusts create a land management model with fragmented Maori land ownership brought within a trust structure. Former owners become beneficiaries of a trust with defined shares. Trustees are appointed. The Maori Land Court has a supervisory role over trustee decisions.
Te Rakaherea’s descendants currently in occupation objected to creation of an ahu whenua trust. They wanted compensation for money spent upgrading buildings.
The court was told they had not got consent from other whanau members as co-owners of the land before spending this money.
Judge Doogan approved creation of an ahu whenua trust. Multiple trustees were appointed from each branch of the Pomare family. Judge Doogan left open the possibility of a later appointment of an independent trustee.
He ruled that family members currently occupying the land have no continuing rights of occupation and that they can remove at their own cost additions made to the buildings.
Rather than impose an occupation rent for the current occupiers past twenty years of rent-free occupation, Judge Doogan suggested the newly appointed trustees might consider they instead contribute to costs of a development plan which could include redevelopment of the land they currently occupy.
Pomare v. Pomare – Maori Land Court (3.10.24)
25.005