Land Services & Departments

The Ministry of Maori Development Act 1991 established Te Puni Kokiri, the Ministry of Maori Development in 1992. Currently, Te Puni Kokiri’s work focuses on providing high quality policy advice to Government and other agencies. Recently it has also begun providing services to assist Maori achieve their development aims.

Information on Traditional uses of New Zealand native plants. In a project initiated by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) in the late 1980s, historical records were searched for information on the economic and cultural uses of harakeke or New Zealand flax. This information was put into a database for easy access. During the 1990s, early publications and manuscripts were searched for details on the traditional uses of all New Zealand native plants, as part of research for a proposed ethnobotanical garden. Information gathered was added to the existing database on harakeke.

Everything you need to know about Maori Land Trusts; successions, setting up a trust, how they work, purpose and intent and application forms etc.

The Maori Land Information Base (MLIB) is used to locate individual Maori land blocks on a computer-generated map. It contains Maori Land Court information about Maori freehold land, which the Maori Land Court in consultation with Maori has approved for release on the Internet. This information is overlaid on a digital cadastral database and includes: The size of each Maori land block An indication of the number of owners Topographical information such as roads and rivers, and Relevant and appropriate management information, eg, if an incorporation or trust manages the land, etc. The Maori Land Information Base was first developed in 1997 and provides a snapshot of Maori freehold land as at August 2000.

The Maori Land Court (Te Kooti Whenua Maori) is the New Zealand court that hears matters relating to Maori land. About 1.3 million hectares in New Zealand is designated as Maori freehold land, just under five percent of the total 26.4 million hectares in the country.rnrnThe special bond between Maori people and land is recognised by the Maori Land Court, and the records held by this Court form an invaluable part of the whakapapa of all Maori.

The LG KnowHow workshops were designed to help local authorities and central government agencies to understand and implement the provisions of important legislation affecting local government. In addition to the general provisions of the legislation, there are four areas of particular relevance to Maori: * Consultation with Maori * Participation of Maori in decision making * Postponement of rates on Maori freehold land * Maori wards and constituencies.

Links to Council Websites and Boundary Maps for North & South Island, New Zealand from Local Government New Zealand portal.