B. Moon (The Weekend Sun, May 19) questions that the value of land wrongfully taken from Maori by past governments is more than $30 billion. Fair compensation is very simple. It returns what was taken or enough money to buy the equivalent of what was taken. In Tauranga, Maori received $50 million of compensation for land now worth over $500 million undeveloped.

The fact that it took over 135 years for compensation to be paid, with no compensation for lost income, is not the fault of Maori. They received less than 10 per cent compensation. Since the Treaty of Waitangi Act was passed in 1975 all governments have accepted that Maori land was wrongfully taken. Maori have received about $3 billion in Treaty settlements, and always less than 10 per cent compensation.

So the $3 billion of Treaty settlements that has now been paid is equivalent to $30 billion of land taken. B. Moon has not answered the important question that he replied to, which is why Maori should have different compensation rules from everybody else.

P Dey, Welcome Bay.