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PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS The Māori Trustee continues to provide a valuable service by assisting in the management of Māori clients’ land and other resources. During 2007/2008, we acted as trustee or agent for 187,700 owners of 2,061 properties, covering just over 110,900 hectares of Māori land. While the number of properties has decreased slightly, related annual rental has increased by over 7.3% to $12,165,399 (2007 $11,232,351). This was partly due to rising land values but also to our approach of identifying and assisting owners to develop the income potential of their land. A major priority of the Māori Trustee is to manage clients’ assets to best advantage, and to do this by actively and regularly consulting with clients and so enabling them to achieve their development aspirations. During the period under review the Māori Trustee arranged 362 meetings of owners, 146 meetings with advisory trustees and responsible trustees and provided written reports to owners of 491 blocks. The Māori Trustee continued to work with owners of properties that have been identified as having development potential and being capable of providing significantly improved returns. For example, the economics of sustainably harvesting beech on 11 South Island properties has been investigated and found to be favourable. A kiwifruit joint venture in the Bay of Plenty supported by the Māori Trustee now provides employment and training for 25 locals. A loan was provided to a Taranaki trust to enable it to purchase an adjoining property for dairy development. (More information on these and other development projects can be found on pages 20-21.) In some cases we were able to negotiate and include in a new lease a programme for medium term improvements in the condition of the land. We also continued to provide services to individual beneficial owners – maintaining over 126,000 client accounts and paying out $5,738,862 in dividends. Thanks to our proactive approach of contacting clients we have maintained the percentage of accounts with valid contact details at 34% – a critical factor in the level of dividends able to be paid. This is a satisfactory outcome given the number of historic accounts (many awaiting succession orders) and a mobile client base. Both the Common Fund and General Purposes Fund investment portfolios outperformed the industry average benchmarks for the year. We are looking forward to the coming year with much anticipation and to providing our clients with the professional services they need to develop their resources and realise their visions.