N Thompson

In response to Tio Ōhiwa Cruises’ comments about the letter under the heading “Historical accuracy questioned”, Beacon letters, Wednesday, March 26, Tio Ōhiwa Cruises writes, “The korero on our guided tours is taken from public information, local knowledge, and published works, mostly by Māori authors, academics, government papers, and kaumatua.”

If the Māori authors, academics, and kaumatua cannot get the history of this bit of land (Ohakana Island and Ōhope), it is possible other Māori history may also be incorrect.

All my information is from government documents and land deeds and is not made up.

Tio Ōhiwa Cruises also writes, “We have not had any opportunity to hear the tourist’s claims, and the complainant has not yet produced any evidence to dispute otherwise.”

I had sent an email to Tio Ōhiwa well before my letter was printed in the Beacon explaining the true history of the land and the response was, “We appreciate your perspective”.

I replied with, “This is not my perspective it is legal recorded facts.”

Land deeds are produced when the Government first surveys the land and creates a land title for each allotment number of the land, therefore there is a recorded information of that piece of land from when it was first survey right up until today, including all Māori land.