{"id":201096,"date":"2025-12-25T10:07:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/201096\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T10:07:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T10:07:17","slug":"court-of-appeal-maori-land-court-cannot-rule-on-poroti-springs-water-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/201096\/","title":{"rendered":"Court of Appeal: M\u0101ori Land Court cannot rule on Porot\u012b Springs water"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published on \"NZ<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Poroti<\/p>\n

\nPoroti Springs has been the focal point of several court cases over the years.
\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n

A long-running effort by hap\u016b trustees to have their customary rights to Porot\u012b Springs legally recognised has hit another hurdle, with the Court of Appeal ruling their claims must instead be taken to the High Court.<\/p>\n

The decision comes just four months after a landmark agreement with the Whang\u0101rei District Council granted the trust first rights to daily use of the spring’s water, an acknowledgement of their enduring relationship with the wai.<\/p>\n

In its judgement, the Court of Appeal confirmed the M\u0101ori Land Court has no jurisdiction to determine customary title or award damages, leaving the trustees to pursue recognition in a different forum.<\/p>\n

For generations, Porot\u012b Springs, west of Whang\u0101rei, has sustained the Whang\u0101rei community, providing food, cleansing rituals and blessings for soldiers departing for war.<\/p>\n

Sitting beneath Whatitiri maunga, local hap\u016b Te Uriroroi, Te Parawhau, and Te M\u0101hurehure ki Whatitiri regard the springs as a nurturing female ancestor.<\/p>\n

Trustee Taipari Munro described the springs as “the breast of Papat\u016b\u0101nuku giving life and sustenance with flowing cool pristine waters”.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Munro has given evidence that the wai (water) and whenua (land) has remained unbroken despite Crown interventions and regulatory regimes that curtailed their authority.<\/p>\n

The trustees hold the surrounding land, known as Whatitiri 13Z4, as M\u0101ori freehold land, but have had to battle several large corporations given resource consents to take large amounts of water.<\/p>\n

In the 2000s, the trust repeatedly objected to the Northland Regional Council’s decisions to grant or reissue consents.<\/p>\n

They argued they were never consulted over several resource consents, and the council had ignored their customary rights.<\/p>\n

The trust celebrated a win in 2018 when Zodiac Holdings sold its land and resource consent to take 1.5 million litres of water a day to Te \u0100rawhiti, the Crown, to be used in future treaty settlement negotiations.<\/p>\n

Then, after decades of negotiation, the trust signed an agreement with the Whang\u0101rei District Council, giving the trust first rights to the first 2000cu m of the daily allocation of 15,500cu m per day.<\/p>\n

But the fight wasn’t over as the courts were still timetabling and working through another issue.<\/p>\n

In December 2020, the hap\u016b filed proceedings in the M\u0101ori Land Court seeking declarations their customary title to the water had not been extinguished, and damages of $100,000 against the Northland Regional Council for losses caused by over-allocation of water rights.<\/p>\n

This over-allocation contributed to the springs running dry in the 1980s, a major environmental and cultural injury repeatedly referenced by the trustees.<\/p>\n

They argued tikanga does not separate soil from water, and that the M\u0101ori Land Court was the right forum to reflect that.<\/p>\n

The Attorney-General and the council opposed the claim, saying the M\u0101ori Land Court lacked jurisdiction, and the parties agreed to resolve the issue by way of a declaratory judgement in the High Court.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the High Court ruled the M\u0101ori Land Court does not have jurisdiction to make orders for customary title in respect of freshwater or to award damages for injury to such title.<\/p>\n

The trustees appealed that decision, supported by the New Zealand M\u0101ori Council.<\/p>\n

The Court of Appeal heard the case in August 2024 and delivered its judgement almost a year and a half later in December.<\/p>\n

\"Millan<\/p>\n

\nMillan Ruka has been fighting for the springs for decades.
\nPhoto: SUPPLIED\n<\/p>\n

The court had to decide which court was the proper gateway to hear the trustees’ claims.<\/p>\n

In its reasons, the court canvassed the Te Ture Whenua M\u0101ori Act 1993 and emphasised its design was to protect M\u0101ori land by anchoring jurisdiction in the status of land.<\/p>\n

They noted the purpose of the M\u0101ori Land Court is to promote the retention, use and development of M\u0101ori land, and not to regulate water as a standalone resource.<\/p>\n

The court stressed its decision was not about whether the trustees’ customary rights to Porot\u012b Springs exist or have been infringed.<\/p>\n

The court ruled the trustees’ grievances, essentially challenges to water allocation decisions, were therefore matters for the High Court.<\/p>\n

“Challenges to the exercise of the Northland Regional Council’s statutory authority under the RMA must be brought by way of judicial review or through an Environment Court appeal. Claims to establish customary rights over resources must be brought before the High Court, against the Crown.”<\/p>\n

A trust representative told NZME decisions on the next steps will be made next year.<\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"First published on Poroti Springs has been the focal point of several court cases over the years. Photo:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-201096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}