… a massive win for property and contract law:
Iwi from the top of Te Waipounamu are entitled to thousands of hectares of land and millions of dollars in compensation for a land deal struck in the 1830s which the government did not honour.
In interim High Court findings released this afternoon, Justice Rebecca Edwards largely sided with Rore Stafford, who sued the Crown on behalf of the customary owners of the Nelson Tenths.
The tenths were parcels of land in Nelson accounting for 15,100 acres (6110 hectares), which the Crown was meant to hold in trust for the hapū of Ngāti Rārua, Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Kōata – the land’s customary owners.
The dispute dated to the New Zealand Company’s purchase of 151,000 acres of land in Te Tauihu (the top of the South Island) in 1839.
Dave5 
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