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The progress made on Treaty settlements is being cited by the
government as a key factor behind the relative harmony at Waitangi
in recent years.
But some Maori say the sums paid out are trivial and the haste to
wrap up the process will just create further grievances.
The Waitangi Tribunal was set up in 1975 to investigate breaches of the Treaty, but it is only now that the end of the settlement process is in sight
A law change last year set a deadline for historic claims which must now be lodged by September 2008.
Prime MInister Helen Clark says though that deadline will put pressure on the system and the negotiators, the timeframe is realistic.
But some question whether the Waitangi Tribunal has the resources to cope
"The tribunal's funding is half that of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra now the NZSO is a great thing to support but the tribunal you would think would have more resources if it's meant to be investigating historical grievances going back 150 years," says Canterbury University from Dr Rawiri Taonui.
While an average of just three settlements are made a year the government aims to wrap up the remaining 50 large claims by 2020 and believes Maori are eager to move quickly too.
"Maori see what those iwi who have settled have been able to achieve they've risen to new heights with economic development education scholarship and the kind of services that can be offered," says Clark.
So far about 20 settlements have been made at a cost of $750 million - about the same amount of money as the profit Telecom expects to make this year alone.
The biggest payouts have been to Tainui and Ngai Tahu. Both got $170 million, but even that is a fraction of the value of the land they lost.
"Of course if you tried to settle for today's commercial value of land lost you couldn't do it without bankrupting the state of New Zealand so that's not a feasible option - it's a question of finding what's a fair option for both iwi and New Zealand as a whole," says Clark.
Reconciling those two things is the challenge we face on our
national day.
