History collated by Ivan Willis – Chairman of the West Coast Lessees Association 2003-2010

In January 1863, by order of Governor George Grey, three million acres of land on the west coast of New Zealand from Raglan to Westport was confiscated from Maori. Governor Grey promised some of this land would be selected and set aside for those Maori who had not remained ‘loyal’ to the Crown.

In 1880 a commission was set up to settle land claims by Maori and it was recommended that 200,000 Acres (83,000 Ha) be granted by the crown for both loyal and rebel natives thus creating West Coast Settlement Reserve (WCSR) leases.

Initially the Public Trustee administered these leases for 21-year terms with no right of renewal and all improvements were owned by the Maori land owners. However, they were required to pay to lessees the value of the improvements made to the land at the end of the term. Also, in this original lease arrangement was a requirement that the lessee clear and develop at least 4% of the lease area per year. Thus at the end of 21 years there should be around 84% of the land cleared and productive.

When these original leases were up for renewal, around 1900, the Maori owners found that the market values of improvements made by the lessees were too expensive to pay for and the crown were not prepared to advance either loans or assistance to fund their payment. So a scheme was worked out where the existing lessees agreed to forego payment for the improvements and retain ownership of them in exchange for a perpetual lease.

It took until 1913 to achieve this exchange under the first West Coast Settlements Reserve Act. The rental rate in this Act was set at 5% of the unimproved value, which was easy to value at that time because much of the land was in its unimproved state. That rental rate of 5% remained in place until 1997.

In 1948 a royal commission of enquiry Chaired by Sir Michael Myers to review these leases found that the bulk of the leases should be scrapped and re-issued with small alterations and the rest should remain as they were, thus creating a different review date for up to 70 leases (some before and some after the majority review date), which remains to this day. The Myers commission also set up the framework of the West Coast Settlement Reserve Lessee Association (WCLA) to represent all lessees in negotiations with The Maori Trustee.

In 1955 all Acts with regard to Maori reserved lands were repealed and consolidated into the Maori Reserved Land Act (MRLA) of 1955. This Act and an amendment in 1965 amalgamated the land titles and gave beneficial owners shares in the collective land, as distinct from individual ownership, which was administered for them by the Maori Trustee.

In 1967 the MRLA was amended to give beneficial owners the right to sell their interest to the Maori Trustee if they so desired and the trustee could freehold any lease at Government Valuation plus 10%. A total of 126 leases comprising 16,325 acres  (6791 Ha) were freeholded between 1968 and 1973 when incoming Labour Govt withdrew this option.

The next commission of inquiry into WCSR leases was in 1974 when Judge Sheehan, a retired Maori land court judge, recommended that incorporations be established to administer their own lands, thus creating a number of entities throughout the country administering both urban and rural property that was previously overseen by the Maori Trustee.

The largest of these incorporations is Parininihi Ki Waitotara (PKW) in Taranaki, set up to administer land that was confiscated between Parininihi (White Cliffs in North Taranaki) and Waitotara (in South Taranaki). PKW administers some 23,000ha owned by 7,000 shareholders. This incorporation originally based itself in Stratford, but in recent years has moved to New Plymouth.

In 1990 the Government, under pressure from all of the incorporations, agreed to review the leases with the view to giving the owners of the land more access to ownership of these properties.

The Government set up a framework for negotiation that was designed to extinguish the leases at no cost to the crown. They proposed to give lessees the right to continue under the existing lease conditions for another three lease terms (a total of sixty three years) and at the conclusion to hand over the improvements to the incorporations with no compensation.

This proposal destroyed most of the lessees’ value in the properties for the following eight to ten years until they were able to win a court battle with the Crown to get full compensation for the changes to the leases were made and are still in effect today.

The law changes that came from this were the Maori Reserve Land Amendment Act (MRLA Act) of 1997 and the Amendment of 1998. These laws give lessees the perpetual right of renewal on their leases, with a 21-year term and a rent review every seven years establishing the market rental on the lessors’ interest.

Another clause in the MRLA Act gives either party the first right of refusal in case of sale. PKW have used this a number of times since to purchase lessee interests and effectively freehold some of their land. Since the 1970’s PKW has not sold its interest in any WCSR land.

At the first rent review to be conducted under the new Act, in 2003, a retired judge, Justice Barker, was jointly appointed to hear submissions from both parties as to how the rental should be set and both parties agreed to be bound by the decisions made at the arbitration. This rent review took a little under a year to settle, in contrast to previous reviews, which had taken as long as twelve years.

The relationship between West Coast Lessees Association and PKW has, at times, been difficult and confrontational. However, since 1997 and the changes made under the MRLA Act, dealings between the two parties have become far more professional and amicable.

The two Parties have agreed to follow the collegial process to determine rents for the last three reviews avoiding considerable costs for all.