Btw, At least the pommy aristocracy did something in return for their pay.

Substantially more I would say. With the price of gold thread nowadays, that “TUKU JUNIOR” embossing on the Y front will have increased the cost enormously.

Meanwhile, Ngai Tahu continue to grow their investments and employ people around the south island.

Pity the corrupt little spendthrifts of Tainui can’t seem to learn something from their example…

Absolutely agree RRM. No iwi has been more pro-active than Ngai Tahu in trying to do something intentional and enduring for its people. They have set the bar high. Tainui instead invested in hotels and football teams, and paid the price.

And all the while Tuku Morgan seems to have secured himself a lifetime first-class ticket on the ToW gravy train. I wonder how much the undies that cost $95 in 1996 go for today.

It’s that bloody river. It makes their brains damp.

The fouled mouthed truck drivers intellect can be seen by him allowing that ratbag Tuku (the father of rip-offs who learned his trade at maori televsion) be his spokesman. I thought that the waikato maori had learned lessons from the past. When they got their original treaty settlement they immediately hired a large airplane (thought to be a 747) to take members of the tribe to a warriors league game in sydney (where they were firmly beaten). I guess it was on that trip when the tribe decided to invest in some apartment development over there – which have since collapsed.
However it now seems that the general level of intellegence among the tribe is universally low as they continue to exhibit signals that at least this group of maori are intellectually inferior to all other New Zealanders.

Democracy is ‘rule by the people’, the mechanisms of democracy vary significantly in each instance. Consider Direct/representative democracy, parliaments, congress/senates, ecclesia etc.

Just because we don’t necessarily recognize the mechanism being used by a group, doesn’t mean they’ve no concept of democracy – perhaps just a different application or conception of it than ourselves.

Geoff Kemp writes in New Zealand Government & Politics (p. 385, 5 ed.):

“The best idea of the political constitution enjoyed by New Zealanders, therefore, may be to describe it as a democracy with elite influence. That, at least, was the verdict of the early colonial official, Edward Shortland, on encountering political society among ‘the New Zealanders’ (by which he meant Maori, it being the 1840s). ‘The power of individual chiefs depends much on public opinion, and few matters of importance are undertaken except after having been submitted to public discussion,’ observed Shortland. ‘No people in the world are greater lovers of freedom than the New Zealanders; and the best idea to be given of the political constitution of their society will be to describe it as a democracy, limited by a certain amount of patriarchal influence’ (Shortland 2001, p.119)”

Tainui people will be the best to sort out their governance structures (and in the process, it would be useful if they shared their rationale, but not necessary), those of us who aren’t involved are probably best to steer clear of it.

There are certain facts of human nature that transend cultures. Cutting people off from justice is never a good thing.

time will tell.

Our speculation is hardly informed.

You’re new here so perhaps I should explain the rules. Never let ignorance stand in the way of expressing an opinion.

When pakeha understand this essential precipice of Maori thinking, they will understand Maori more.

Pride…… That’s all Maori understand. Ego.

We must never be able to go to court to settle our differences

I’ve read that 4 times carefully, and I still can’t believe anyone would say that.