Again Tauranga City Council is determined to give ‘Mauao' (five hectare reserve) back to Maori without a referendum for the local people.

This country has become so blatantly undemocratic, Maori just demand, demand.

If this is given back to Maori, we the ratepayers will still be expected to pick up the bills for the cost of maintaining that property, but Maori will still expect remuneration.So before folks get too carried away about a gondola on the Mount, you better still know it belongs to all New Zealanders first.

Council says the conditions would be that council would still own and operate the businesses there and public access guaranteed. I wonder for how long.

There are three iwi involved here. Have we ever seen separate iwi agree with each other for very long before one group would say ‘yes' and the other would say ‘no'. Then one group would deny access and/or want to charge folks. The Treaty of Waitangi said: ‘One People One Nation' so property like this should remain as public property - owned by all New Zealanders and to be maintained by council and ratepayers.

So where is our referendum on this Mr Crosby?

C Humphreys, Katikati.