15 JULY

NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE

Banking Corporation Limited. A reference to United Bank Limited in any instrument made before the vesting day will by virtue of the Bill be read as a reference to Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited. Any guarantee given by any person to United Bank Limited, or in respect of United Bank Limited’s obligations will remain binding after the vesting day. All proceedings commenced by or against United Bank Limited before the vesting day will continue after that day in the name of Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited. Customers of and depositors with United Bank Limited will have the same relationship with Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited as they had with United Bank Limited. All contracts entered into by United Bank Limited before the vesting day shall to the extent that they were previously binding on United Bank Limited be binding on Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited and any security held by United Bank Limited shall be available to Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited.

The promoter of the Bill is Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited.

Communications or notices to the promoter may be sent to Rudd Watts & Stone, Solicitors, Bank of New Zealand Tower, 125 Queen Street, Auckland (P.O. Box 3798, Auckland; Facsimile 379 3326).

A copy of the Bill may be inspected without charge at the offices set out below during normal office hours on any week day (except Saturday and Sunday and public holidays):

(a) The office of Rudd Watts & Stone at the address stated above;

(b) The office of the Corporate Solicitor, Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited, 280 Queen Street, Auckland;

(c) Any branch of Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited in New Zealand; and

(d) Auckland District Court, corner of Albert and Kingston Streets, Auckland.

Countrywide Banking Corporation Limited by its solicitors, Rudd Watts & Stone, per:

FRANCIS DAWSON.

ps5856

Ngati Rarua - Atiawa Iwi Trust Empowering Bill

Notice is hereby given by the Trustees of the Ngati Rarua - Atiawa Iwi Trust of their intention to apply for leave to introduce into the House of Representatives a private bill, under the Short Title of “The Ngati Rarua - Atiawa Iwi Trust Empowering Act 1993”, during the present session of Parliament.

The objects of the Bill are as follows:

i. To give effect to a resolution by the Nelson Diocesan Synod of the Anglican Church to vest the assets of the Whakarewa School Trust Board (also spelt as Whakarewa School Trust Board) in a trust for the descendants of the original Maori owners from whom those assets were acquired being the Ngati Rarua - Atiawa manawhenua ki Motueka iwi.

ii. To vest certain funds received by the Whakarewa School Trust Board after the land was acquired in 1853 which were not derived from the said land, in the Nelson Diocesan Trust Board for charitable social service purposes.

iii. To enable the consequential dissolution of the Whakarewa School Trust Board.

iv. To ensure an ongoing entitlement for any other hapu or iwi to be included as beneficiaries of the trust if a decision in their favour is able to be obtained from the Waitangi Tribunal, Maori Appellate Court, the High Court or any other Court of competent jurisdiction and to retain the right of any hapu or iwi to bring or continue any such claim before such Tribunal or Court seeking an entitlement.

Background:

a. In 1853 certain lands comprising in total 1078 acres or thereabouts were the subject of Crown grants and were vested in the then Bishop of New Zealand of the Anglican Church for the purpose of establishing a school on certain terms.

b. No compensation was paid to the then Maori owners for the appropriation of the land the subject of the grants.

c. No school has ever been erected on the land. A school operated intermittently supported by income from the land but not since the last century.

d. Whakarewa School Trust Board was incorporated as an Anglican Church Trust in 1907.

e. The Whakarewa School Trust Board administers the original land assets and other assets and bequests acquired by the Church or its subsequent to the said grants.

f. The Synod of the Diocese of Nelson has resolved that it is now just and desirable to vest the lands and other assets derived from the lands in a charitable trust for the benefit of the descendants of the original Maori owners of the lands.

g. The full names of the original Maori owners were contained in judgments in the Maori Land Court delivered in 1892 and 1893 and comprised Ngati Rarua and Atiawa manawhenua ki Motueka iwi.

h. There is no legal power to alter the objects of the Whakarewa School Trust Board to a wider extent than that contained in the Anglican Church Trusts Act 1981.

i. The Anglican Church Trusts Act 1981 only provides for a scheme of arrangement to transfer land assets and not significant other assets or funds held by the Board.

j. The descendants of the original Maori owners being the Ngati Rarua and Atiawa manawhenua ki Motueka iwi have incorporated a charitable trust in which it is desired to vest the remaining land and funds derived from the land.

k. Provision has been included in the Bill to protect the right of any other hapu or iwi to make or continue a claim to entitlement by whakapapa or otherwise to the original owners of the land in 1853 by claims to the Waitangi Tribunal, Maori Land Court, the High Court or any other Court of competent jurisdiction and to give effect to any decision which might be made in favour of such claimant subsequently.

l. The Bill further vests a power of review in the High Court of any decision made by the trustees as to who is to be entitled to be a beneficiary of the trust.

m. Consequent upon the passage of the Bill a provision is included for the dissolution of the Whakarewa School Trust Board.

n. Some of the funds held by the Whakarewa School Trust Board are acknowledged by the descendants of the original owners as not being derived from the lands and are to be vested in the Nelson Diocesan Trust Board for charitable purposes.

o. A large number of properties are to be vested in the new trust pursuant to the Bill are subject to long term leases in respect of the houses built upon them. The provisions of the Bill provide that the assets vested in the new trust are subject to any liabilities or obligations existing at the date of such vesting i.e. the lessees of those properties will not be affected by the vesting. All that will occur is that there will be a different lessor.