Rangiatea to be returned to hapu

Posted by karere under Maori News

A multimillion-dollar tract of land will be returned to Maori today after it was sold about 150 years ago.

In a ceremonial handover today, the Rangiatea Complex between Spotswood College and Spotswood Primary School will be gifted back to the Ngati Te Whiti hapu.

Previously the land has been owned by the Methodist Church’s Grey Institute Trust, which has decided to give it back to the tangata whenua.

The 4ha property has a capital value of more than $4 million, according to a property report, and the land alone is worth just under $1 million.

The Bayly Road Trust will be receiving the land on behalf of the Ngati Te Whiti hapu, and chairman Shaun Keenan said the property had been sold as part of a large land deal in the 1800s and the hapu was pleased to be getting it back.

“It’s a significant day for us because it’s a significant part of the land being given back,” he said.

Grey Institute Trust secretary Peter Van Hout said the trust had identified the property as one it was time to give back.

Mr Keenan said little would change on the land.

“It will just be left as it is for the time being, the Ministry of Education and Te Wananga o Aotearoa have leases on it and there’s a kura kaupapa and a kohanga reo, a sportsground and the Taranaki District Health Board have their dental clinic on it,” he said.

He also said it was the third important property, the other two being land between Egmont and Dawson streets and also the Bayly Rd land, which had been gifted back to the hapu.

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