and will not be quickly resolve and the effect it has on the will of the majority to conclude a settlement now. 66.3 Although to a degree speculative, it is also to be kept in mind that the appeals do not directly engage the Tribunal’s earlier findings…that the resumable lands and assets should not return to Ngāi Tūmapuhia-ā-Rangi or the Incorporation. 66.4 Neither the Wai 429 nor the Wai 85 claimants challenged these findings in judicial review.
82.
We also concur with the Crown that support for Treaty settlements is rarely if ever unanimous, and settlements nearly always proceed despite some internal conflict.
83. But fundamental to all Treaty settlements, whatever the context, is that they create or at least materially contribute to reconciliation of past grievances. As the Taranaki Tribunal said:118 The settlement of historical claims is not to pay off for the past, even were that possible, but to take those steps necessary to remove outstanding prejudice and prevent similar prejudice from arising; for the only practical settlement between peoples is one that achieves a reconciliation in fact.
84. Some years later, the Tribunal elaborated on this sentiment in an inquiry that heard challenges to the Crown’s settlement process in Tāmaki Makaurau. The Tāmaki Makaurau Settlement Process Report said:119 The purpose of settling Treaty claims is, broadly speaking, peace and reconciliation. By settling, the Crown ‘hopes to lay the basis for greater social cohesion’. Such objectives can be achieved only when both the process and the outcome of negotiation and settling are manifestly fair – not only the settling party but also to others affected. The burden on both Māori and Pākehā of the great wrongs that were done in the past will not be lifted if the process of settling creates new wrongs.
85. The Tribunal observed that Crown officials’ implementation of the Crown’s settlement policies was creating divisions within Māori society that were very damaging. It characterised those divisions as ‘Damage to whanaungatanga, to te taura tangata’ (the bonds of kinship and whakapapa).120 This was a great wrong, because it ‘affects Māori society at its very core’ and ‘goes to the heart of the Treaty guarantees in article II’:121 As a country, we cannot benefit from this. The settlements being negotiated will not be regarded as fair and just...We fear that, like past attempts at settling that were later seen as being unfair, they will not endure.
118
The Taranaki Report: Kaupapa Tuatahi (Wai 143, 1996) at 315. (Wai 1362, 2007) at 2. The language in this passage about social cohesion and the great wrongs done in the past came from the then-current manual of the Office of Treaty Settlements (now Te Arawhiti), usually referred to then as now as the Red Book. 120 The Tāmaki Makaurau Settlement Process Report (Wai 1362, 2007) at 2. 121 The Tāmaki Makaurau Settlement Process Report (Wai 1362, 2007) at 2. 119
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