by frog
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse for Crafar Farms, given their appalling record of dirty dairying and animal cruelty and being put in receivership and under threat of foreign ownership, this appears:
“Ngati Ruanui iwi is outraged that a waahi tapu and pa site, Te Ruaki Pa at Ohangai, owned by Crafar Farms has been damaged.
Debbie Packer, manager of Ngati Ruanui Group Management, said iwi discovered the damage when reviewing its waahi tapu sites over the last couple of weeks.
“It represents an area that was quite a masterful and unique pa. It’s one of the most rare and beautiful examples of a terraced pa pre 1834.
“It’s part of all our history from an era that you can’t get back. We’re really gutted,” Mrs Packer said.”
“Mrs Packer said the iwi was worried the property, which is being marketed for sale, would go to buyers who were either unaware of, or would not care about the historically important site on the farm.
Most local farmers respected waahi tapu and fenced them off or didn’t stock them, she said. The owners before Crafar Farms had fenced around the pa site but stock had been allowed on since they took over, Mrs Packer said.
So, no ability to manage a farming enterprise properly, no respect for the environment, no respect for animals, and now it seems no respect for cultural heritage either. Just how low can some people stoop?
The South Taranaki District Council doesn’t come out of this with much credit either:
STDC spokesman Gerard Langford said the council did not have any specific rules in its district plan about handling waahi tapu sites.
Get some rules, STDC!
Hat Tip: mars2earth
Published in Environment & Resource Management | Society & Culture by frog on Wed, June 16th, 2010
Tags: animal cruelty, Crafar Farms, cultural heritage, dirty dairy, Ngati Ruanui, waahi tapu
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Just another example of the compounded disaster that Crafar farms has become. We had such an area fenced off when we farmed and left it alone and untouched.It shows a simple respect for one’s neighbours and their beliefs and an acknowledgment of the dead.
Many farmers must be getting sick of carrying the can for a minority of short sighted exploiters of the land.
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Frog is right the local Councils should see that sacred grave sites are protected or are they more interested in ripping off the ratepayers!!!
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Exactly, Drakula. It really surprises me, in this day and age that the local council doesn’t have any rules to cover the situation.
And, further more, huge numbers of non-Maori have Maori children/grandchildren/in-laws so it makes the rules omission very much out of step with our social ethos.
It cannot be a red-neck thing, surely, with the council: it just means they need to bring themselves into the 21st century rather quickly by amending the District Plan to deal with the situation.
Also, another point: who looked over the District Plan at input and review stages? A daunting prospect for citizens, I know. (Sorry, I have digressed somewhat from the Crafar debacle…)
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The Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping, currently visiting New Zealand says (in Mandarin),
“Auckland is beautiful”.
Hmmmmm…….
and the question posed by Russel Norman; “Will his visit see our Overseas Investment Office put under even more pressure over the Crafar farms deal?”, presents strongly.
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It should be noted that this incident happened under the management of the receiver Micheal Stiassny from Korda Mentha, NOT Allan Crafar. During the time this happened, Allan Crafar was not even allowed on the farms let alone any say over what happened on them.
Once again I am embarrassed by the ignorance of my fellow humans and their willingness to pin the blame on whoever the media tells them to.
Maybe your questions should be addressed at why our government seems hell bent on selling our farming sector to offshore companies? Note that now Landcorp is putting in a bid for the farms. Landcorp, as you should all know, is a crown or state owned enterprise and for those of you who haven’t done your homework, the Crown is company based in the City of London, NOT a NZ owned company. In fact, the New Zealand Company is not a New Zealand owned company!! Also take note that the Crown owns DOC who are trying to mine our national parks.
The background of Allan Crafar, if any of you care to set your bias aside, is one of a hard working kiwi bloke with a hard working kiwi family who have made the most they can out of life based on the world view they were brought up with. Now that our world view is shifting more toward environmentally friendly and sustainable ways it is no reason to hate on the guys who did the work to get us this far. Our best approach is education, support and encouragement. By taking people like Allan Crafar out of the picture and putting the control into offshore owned companies we are not helping our situation. This country is severely lacking hard working people as it is. It seems we are happy to stack thousands of people into office buildings in big cities (which are the leading cause of pollution in the world due to the large scale farming required to support them, not to mention the toxic chemicals, fuels and energy required for them) but when it comes to supporting the people who work their hands to the bone to support these massive centers of consumption we fall very very short.
I come from a farming background and have seen both sides of the coin as I am now an avid environmental supporter and have dedicated my life to helping educate an encourage people about how we can live better on this earth. My new approach doesn’t stop me appreciating what farming has done for us, it makes me even more enthusiastic about helping people find more sustainable ways of farming and living. The first step is for people to stop living in cities, stop buying from supermarkets and start producing their own food and energy. I would really appreciate it if people posting on a “Greens” website could find it in their hearts to do the same.
Much love
-Owen
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Owen, Debbie Packer is reported (in my quote above) as saying that the area was fenced off by the owner before Crafar Farms, but the fencing was removed and the stock allowed on after Crafar took over. Clearly, the damage was discovered after the receiver took over, but the report implies that it actually occurred under Crafar Farms’ management.
If you have more detail as to the timeline, Owen, please let us know.
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The damage was done during a wet spell a few months ago. I’m not sure of the exact time as I wasn’t actually there. I have, however, spoken to Allan about it and he has confirmed it was done after the receivers took over.
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