28 June 2008 Media Release

Historic Settlement big deal for Trust

The Crown Forestry Rental Trust congratulates the Central North Island collective on the historic signing of their Deed of Settlement in parliament today.

This is a significant milestone for all of the Iwi involved and by far the largest settlement that the Trust has been involved in since its inception in 1989, says Trust CE Ben Dalton.

“It was especially satisfying to have accompanied our chairman Sir Graeme Latimer to today’s ceremony because he spearheaded the fight to have these forests and estates set aside for the purposes of settling unresolved land claims.”

“The Trust has played an active role in assisting all of the CNI iwi to reach this point in their quest to have their claims recognised and negotiated for redress with the Crown.”

“It was especially pleasing to have Ariki Dr Tumu te Heuheu publicly recognise that contribution during his formal address to the collective iwi members.”

The Trusts accounts show accumulated rentals of over $600-million and today’s settlement effectively extracts $223 million for the collective central North Island Iwi to utilise heading forward.

“The Trust will continue to support the Central North Island community on the next part of their journeys to build a capable and formidable entity to run the multi million dollar asset base that is about to return to them.“

“We wish them well for the future and are honoured to have played a part in assisting them to reach such a significant achievement,” said Ben Dalton.

Contact:
Ben Dalton
Chief Executive Crown Forestry Rental Trust
(04) 915 1500