Post #614343 by Club Nouméa on Thu, Nov 17, 2011 3:38 PM

That quote is brilliant - it pretty much sums things up too. Still, it's not all bad; the Waitangi Tribunal has settled a lot of grievances, although the wrongs of the past have not yet all been righted, and may never be. Even so, to give just two examples, out Paipo's way in Westland, Pakehas do not have the right to pick up greenstone (jade) from riverbeds as the result of treaty claim settlements reflecting Maori ancestral rights (some white fellas with a helicopter were successfully prosecuted for hauling out some big slabs of greenstone some years ago, much to their chagrin). Also, the Ngai Tahu (the main tribe in the South Island) have been recognised as the guardians of the whole of the Southern Alps. I have the impression that overall things are getting better here, and we can be grateful that our race relations are not as bad as, say, South Africa's.

CN