Peter Dey's letter defending 'Treaty Settlements' continues a discredited line of thinking. With Maori estimating a 50% ownership of the New Zealand economy from an asset base around $40 billion and ‘settlements' valued up to half a $billion each, the idea they cost only 1% of government expenditure is a concept best left to the Lombard/Bridgecorp school of creative accounting. If you were to give your house to your neighbour along with $1000 cash would you state that this has only cost you $1000? As to the notion that settlements result in only a small proportion of ‘stolen land returned', the letter from D Holm illustrates one aspect that undermines the foundation of this attitude. I suggest also reading Ian Wishart's 'The Great Divide”, just the latest in a long line of publications that expose the fraudulent nature and content of rewritten history of the last 30 years that the Treaty Industry relies on.
When Mr Dey states that past settlements were ‘grossly unfair' he slanders the people who negotiated them, sometimes up to 3 times over many generations. Thus Maori become at best, fools and those on the other side, immoral. This goes against historical accounts from all walks of life that show in general, all peoples had integrity and Maori were clever and resourceful.
If the arrogant notion that somehow this time it has been ‘done right' is correct then why are tribes like Tainui now looking for an additional half $billion top up to their last ‘Full and Final settlement' of the 1990's?
Perhaps the worst aspect is the loss of resources that previously supported all the peoples of the country. Non- Maori now rely on a vastly reduced asset base while their taxes must still support all including Maori. Tribes on the other hand place the acquired assets into trusts that provide little if any revenue back to the country's books. A example of this is in Northland where tribes were gifted hundreds of $millions of fisheries resources on the understanding their youth would be trained into the industry. Instead, foreign vessels are licensed to fish the resource and the money swells tribal coffers. Their young still languish as unemployed, supported by the remainder of NZ who no longer share in the benefits of the asset. (abridged)

Mike Kuipers von Lande
Mt. Maunganui.