After giving Mr Bidois a large amount of space in the paper over the last few weeks I trust you will make a little room for me.

Mr. Bidois' rationale for the $millions we will pay him is due to ancestors being killed in the battle of Orakau. At this time the Kingite & Hau Hau movements were in full cry, vicious attempts by Maori to wipe non Maori from the length and breadth of NZ. Tribes descended upon white settlements and slaughtered them to the last man, woman and child, often in their beds. Hundreds were massacred. The tribes were warned on multiple occasions to desist and honour the treaty and sovereignty or face an armed response and land confiscation. The warnings were ignored.

The deaths Mr Bidois refers to in both Orakau and Te Ranga occurred in battles where Maori had dug in and built fortifications specifically to engage government troops responding to the gruesome rebellions. He considers the deaths of 106 armed Maori at Te Ranga (he states 120) to be an atrocity of unparalleled proportions. Where then does the slaughter of many times this number of unarmed settler families rank? Where does the slaughter of an estimated 40,000 - 60,000 Maori, sometimes thousands at a time by other Maori during the musket wars rank? Where the slaughter of around 2000 pacifist Moriori by Maori at the Chatham Islands? These are the genuinely dark episodes of NZ history.

Why no compensation paid by his tribe to the descendants of the settlers massacred or to other Maori tribes they massacred? Why are the deaths of Maori by Maori and Whites by Maori of no consequence? Why is it only the deaths of Maori by Whites that attract his ire? Could it be that this is the only area where the money is?

We saw similar attitudes recently when correspondents Mr. Kapai and Dey claimed 140 innocents burned to death in a church. Mr. Prince proved that this was in fact no more than 12 in a fortified Whare while engaged with troops and the Maori shooting at troops from the Whare caused the fire themselves. Mr Dey still desperately claims this as an atrocity.

Much of the land confiscated from tribes in the BOP was subsequently returned. The tribes then sold much of it over the following period - some more than once.

Mr Bidois will get his $millions due to the corrupt workings of the Waitangi tribunal and the government. He and his supporters should hang their heads in shame and dishonour. As a parting shot he stated "The level of money is all that we can expect at this time. This code has been used for many decades to mean "We will be returning for more in the future".

Mike Kuipers von Lande,
Mt. Maunganui