You know, when you go for a stroll down the affluent streets of Kohimarama, it’s hard to see the connection with the Solomons, Vanuatu, and Noumea, until of course you learn that up to 20% of the land, is still owned and leased out by the Melanesia Trust Board.

Interesting too because Mission Bay’s first connection with the Melanesian Mission dates back to 1849, which is where the name Mission comes in of course, dating back to Bishop Selwyn bringing Melanesians to Auckland for training and Mission Bay from as far back as 1856.

Then, in 1859 the Melanesian Mission House was opened, to coincide with the arrival of 38 Melanesians on board the Mission vessel, Southern Cross.

And nowadays, the Melanesian Mission Dining Hall has been transformed into a restaurant on Tamaki Drive.

What they probably don’t include in their menu notes is that fourteen of the original training students died in the Mission, from an epidemic of dysentery in 1863 – probably not that good for business.

Now what this Bill is about, is amending the Melanesian Trusts Act 1974 to establish certain income tax exemptions.
And when it first came up at Caucus, I was reminded of a couple of things from my days at Tipene (1) the Melanesian Cross I used to carry for padre when I was an altar boy, and (2) the number of Melanesian students who attended Tipene courtesy of the Melanesian Trust Board, many of whom have gone on to leadership positions back in their own country’s.
So I understood immediately the connection and the relevance of the assets of the Melanesian Mission Trust Board to the work, and indeed the aspirations of the Māori Party.
Maori people’s relationship with Melanesia exists on many levels.

Our tribal histories detail relationships and negotiations between the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia, many, many centuries ago.

Back in 1772, the French navigator, Crozet, came to the Bay of Islands and amongst his descriptions of the fine and outstanding breed of people known as Ngapuhi he also noted the presence of people he described as“more Melanesian”, shorter in stature,“slightly frizzled” hair, and“more swarthy”.

Our Mataatua whanaunga from down Ngāti Awa, also include in their tribal histories, the arrival of some black-skinned people on board a canoe, that reached Whakatane some five hundred years ago, with links to Melanesia.

And then there’s the languagewe speak. Māori is often described as a Malayo-Polynesian language - categorized as Indonesian, Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian families.

Although it would be fair to say, our language bears more in common with Rarotonga, Tahiti, Hawaii, and all the islands of French Polynesia than it does with Fiji, Vanuatu or Papua New Guinea, the connection is still important.
The relationship between Māori and Melanesian art forms has also been noted. As far back as 1915 in an article on “Māori and Maruiwi”, Elsdon Best describes koru-like motifs and spirals, so frequently applied in our arts, as “abounding in the tribal arts of Melanesia”.

And in the artforms of whakairo, Sir Apirana Ngata, has also shared his thoughts back in 1936, in an essay written around the time of the building of the meeting house in Waitara.

Tā Apirana described a letter he had received from Sir Peter Buck, linking Melanesian influence with tara whaikairo, in a house he had seen in Fiji with similar forms and ornamentation. He talked also of tracing other designs to Melanesia—those of the scroll and the manaia and another resembling the puhoro.
And perhaps the greatest connection we amongst Māori share with the islands of Melanesia is the common history we have endured as supposed ‘protectors’ came in the form of traders, whalers, sealers, missionaries bringing with them diseases, guns and the prospect of unsettled settlement.

And so the islands of Polynesia and of Melanesia became occupied and inhabited and influenced by British and French, and Spanish, and Dutch, and German, and American visitors.
And what does all this connection between Aotearoa and Melanesia have to do with income tax? Well, it certainly sets the tone for our position on this Bill.
You see, all those citizens out Kohimarama, St Heliers and Mission Bay, boosting up the income for the Melanesian Mission Trust Board will probably not be too worried that their leases are not subject to income tax.

Same goes for the distributions of income by the Melanesian Trust Board.

But for people like Brian Corban (Chairperson of the Melanesian Trust Board), Peter Brook, William Somerville, Derek Firth and other members of the Board, this Bill is very important to tidy up any uncertainties that have emerged since the decision of the New Zealand Court of Appeal in Dick v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (2002).

The Trust Board has always treated its income as tax exempt, considering that its charitable status was based on it being vastly different from mainstream business operations.

And when you look at the definition of charitable purposes in the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, you can see there’s not a lot of commercial profit in supplying, and I quote,“the physical wants of sick, aged, destitute, poor, or helpless persons, or of the expenses of funerals of poor persons”

The list of charitable purposes goes even further to specify“the education of the poor or indigent or their children; the reformation of offenders, prostitutes, drunkards, or drug addicts and the employment and care of discharged offenders”.

And true to form, the Melanesian Mission helped set up the Auckland Industrial School in 1882, to provide for destitute and neglected children.

So the central question that this Bill aims to address is whether the income from the residential tenure on church leasehold lands, should be taxed.

The Māori Party has three key principles which guide our decisions on this Bill.

We support tax exemptions for charitable purposes
We support tax exemptions for beneficiaries and low income earners.
And we also support this Bill because of our common history with Melanesia.

But we will also be looking at the committee stage, to understand the accountability and connection back to the islands of Melanesia.

And in considering the peoples of Melanesia, the story of Vanuatu perhaps bears a special mention.

It is estimated that the impact of imported diseases brought to the country by British and French missionaries, sandalwood traders, and black-birders, decimated the population in Vanuatu from approximately one million in 1800 to just 45,000 by 1935.

And if that wasn’t savage enough, during World War II the Yanks moved in; building their own infrastructure and buildings, and then just as abruptly departed in 1945, leaving the island struggling.

The ni-Vanuatu, particularly in urban areas like Port Vila, are still burdened by the lack of economic independence, with their economy in a fragile position. So fragile in fact, that the United Nations has listed it as aLeast Developed Country, with the average economic growth continuing to fall 2.5% behind the average rate of population growth.

Mission Bay; Kohimarama; Port Vila – well, maybe there is very little in common after all.

This Bill on its own, won’t do much for Vanuatu.
But on thisInternational Day for the Eradication of Poverty, perhaps together, we in this House can do something, to help create a more socially just world, and stand up and speak out against poverty everywhere.

For those reasons, the Māori Party will be supporting this Bill.

ENDS

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