Location

Turangi

Turangi is a small town on the west bank of the Tongariro, 50 kilometres south-west of Taupo on the North Island Volcanic Plateau of New Zealand. It was built during the 1960s to accommodate the workers associated with the Tongariro hydro-electric power development project and their families. The town was designed to remain as a small servicing centre for the exotic forest plantations south of Lake Taupo and for tourists. It is well known for its trout fishing and calls itself "The trout fishing capital of the world".

Built on the banks of the Tongariro River, Turangi and its surrounding countryside offers challenging hunting, fishing, mountain biking, hiking or leisurely bush walks, white water rafting, kayaking and sight seeing.

The town has a population of around 3500, and it is (after Taupo) the second largest population centre in the Taupo District. Turangi's population peaked at 9000 during the 1970s. Since the end of the Project in the 1980s the population has declined but has remained stable due to the town's handy location for tourists.

Māori settlement

The area was settled by the people of Ngati Tuwharetoa, descendants of those who had originally settled in the Kawerau area. The major Tuwharetoa migration occurred from about the 16th century with a war party under command of Turangitukua who engaged in a number of battles against earlier inhabitants of the Taupo, Rotoaira and Kaimanawa area. Following these battles a variety of settlements were established in the area with major pa established on the cliff overlooking the Tongariro River and at Waitahanui on the Tongariro Delta. Another important settlement was at Tokaanu.

The people who eventually become known as Ngati Turangitukua associate mainly with Waitahanui pa. From here they established a number of homesteads along both sides of the Tongariro River and its tributaries. Including houses along the main Highway to Taumarunui (now Hirangi Road) In 1910 construction of a wharepuni begun which eventually became the Hirangi Marae complex.

Pakeha settlement

The first Europeans reached the Turangi area in the 1830s, however it was not until the 1850s that European settlement occurred with the construction of a Mission Station at Pukawa.

In the 1880s and 1890s brown and rainbow trout were introduced into the lake and rivers of the area. A small fishing camp was established at Taupahi on the Tongariro river bank (now Taupahi Road) and a number of European fisherman camped here.

In the 1920s two prison farms were opened at Rangipo and Hautu because of the isolated nature of the area. Also during this period the Morar family arrived from India, settling and establishing a store in Tokaanu.

By 1960 the population was about 500.

Construction of Turangi town began late in 1964. The Government invested $16 million in the development and by May 1966, the population of Turangi had jumped from 500 to 2,500 people. By 1968 the population reached a high of 6,500. A model town with curving streets and cul-de-sacs, uniform houses, pedestrian shopping centre, parking lots and separation from the traffic on the main highway was created.

Following the completion of the project in the late 1970s the Ministry of Works and other government departments began a process of selling assets within the Turangi township.

Treaty settlement

In 1989 Ngati Turangitukua registered with the Waitangi Tribunal The claim was heard under urgency between April and October 1994, and the Tribunal's Report was released in September 1995.

The Tribunal found that the Crown had breached the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi in a number of ways:

• The Crown acquired Māori land at Turangi West when Crown land at Turangi East was available.
• The Crown did not adequately consult with Ngati Turangitukua regarding the construction of the township.
• The land taken for the township was in excess of the maximum area that the Crown promised it would take.
• The land the Crown undertook to lease for industrial purposes and return to the people after 10 to 12 years was compulsorily acquired and not returned.
• Wahi tapu (sacred sites) were destroyed or damaged in the construction of the township.
• Adequate compensation was not paid for land acquired.
• The Crown did not give full effect to conservation values.
• The Crown did not pay Ngati Turangitukua the respect due its mana as tangata whenua.
• The provisions of the Public Works Act 1928 and the Turangi Township Act 1964, relied on by the Crown in entering and taking the claimants' land, are inconsistent with the basic guarantee in Article II of the Treaty of Waitangi that Māori may keep their land until such time as they wish to sell it.
• The Tribunal found that, as a result of the Crown's breaches of the principles of the Treaty, Ngati Turangitukua lost much of its ancestral land. Its social and economic base was seriously eroded causing spiritual, cultural, and economic prejudice to Ngati Turangitukua.

In July 1998, the Crown and Ngati Turangitukua negotiated to achieve a full and final settlement of Ngati Turangitukua's Treaty claims and to remove the continuing sense of grievance.

Details of the Waitangi settlement