It seems B. Mikaere (The Weekend Sun, January 31, page 28) has missed the whole point of my letter although he seems to be highly involved in this Mission Street land issue and therefore biased.

Anyway…

Nowhere has B. Mikaere provided proof that this land Tauranga City Council bought legally off another person who happened to be selling it in Mission Street actually belonged to the Otamata trust in the past but was taken from them illegally.

I have absolutely no problem if that is the case to hand the land back if this can be proven and if it is then Tauranga Council should not have used $1.5million of ratepayers money on this fruitless exercise but Otamata trust should have been rightfully given back this land by the Crown and not at ratepayers expense.

With any land transaction you need legal proof of ownership to finalise a sale and I am amazed that B. Mikaere has not provided that.

It appears that B. Mikaere has some sort of influence over council members about his statements on his version of Maori history being the only one as surely at least one councillor should have challenged him about ratepayer funded land just being handed over without any protest or proof of ownership first? Would you? What would your lawyer advise?

L Askin, Bethlehem (abridged).