Mr Mayor, be very, very careful about committing the people of Tauranga to an agreement that will be shown to have no legality unless you want your tenure to be remembered as ‘The time when we gave our children's inheritance away.”
Under the terms of the Treaty the Ngai Tuhoe have no more rights than any other New Zealanders. They may not have signed the Treaty but they have certainly profited greatly from its benefits since.
Don't be deceived by the corrupted translation of the word ‘Taonga.” In 1820 it meant according to chiefs Hongi Hika and Waikato ‘property taken by the spear.' It means the same today, something tangible, real, solid, like tools,weapons, food, clothing and not something esoteric, abstract and in the realms of conjecture.
The Ngai Tuhoe have no more rights to guardianship or authority over affairs than any other citizen. To have this authority under the terms of our society they must be democratically elected to office and not just granted it as of right, as misguided compensation for some unproven historic injustice. There must be no co-governance. There is no historic justification for it.

Bryan Johnson, Omokoroa.