Police Commissioners Reply
Police Commissioners Reply – Is he a puppet on a string?
25 May 2011.
Commissioner Peter Marshall,
Commissioner of Police,
Police National Headquarters,
PO Box 3017,
Wellington.
Dear Sir,
Re: Unaccountable Expenditure of Taxpayer’s Funds
The One New Zealand Foundation Inc is extremely concerned that you have not responded to this very serious matter of taxpayer’s funds being used to purchase property and settle unaccountable debts to settle an alleged Treaty of Waitangi claim. Letter to Commissioner Howard Broad attached.
Our concern is, Government may have ordered the Commissioner of Police to overlook this matter as there is no doubt it has very wide spread consequences to past and future Waitangi Tribunal recommendations, a fact stated by the Hon John Cater and others in his letter to the Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations in 2005. Letter attached.
The concern of the validity of this claim and the taxpayer’s funds to settle the alleged Te Roroa claim will never go away as it is all fully documented, therefore we ask that the Commissioner of Police holds a full investigation into this very serious matter.
Yours sincerely,
Ross Baker.
Researcher, One New Zealand Foundation Inc.
25 June 2011.
Mr. M. B. Webb,
Acting National Manager: Legal,
Police National Headquarters,
PO Box 3017,
Wellington.
Dear Sir,
Re: Unaccountable Expenditure of Public Money
Thank you for your letter dated the 16 June 2011.
Your letter seems to be in reply to a letter we wrote to the Commissioner of Police in response to his failure to reply to our letter dated the 3 March 2011 with documents showing public money was used without accountability or Parliament’s approval.
In 1994, Cabinet had authorised the Crown to purchase Mr Titford’s property at Maunganui Bluff to assist settlement of the claim of the Te Roroa people under the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. This claim was based on the wahi tapu of Manuwhetai and Whangaiariki. A similar claim had been made in 1939 but after a full judicial inquiry by Chief Judge Shepherd where no evidence was found to support the claim, it was rejected by Parliament in 1942.
Mr Titford made an amendment to the Deed of Sale stating Manuwhetai was only an “alleged” wahi tapu based on further documented evidence of the original sale to the Crown in 1876. Staff within the Crown Law Office and the Office of Treaty Settlements accepted this amendment without the approval of Cabinet, which erased the reason for the Crown to use public money to purchase this property. The reason Mr Titford had been forced to sell his property under duress no longer existed and should not have proceeded until evidence was found to over rule Chief Judge Shepherd’s findings and Parliament’s rejection in 1942.
A letter from the Crown’s negotiator, Ray Chappell explained to the Minister of Justice that the debts of Mr Titford’s that were part of the purchase price were unaccountable. While the Crown Law Office compiled these debts ($2.25 million) they have been unable to account for them.
The Minister of Justice, who was also the Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, must have known this was a false claim and that the debts were unaccountable to have agreed to initial the amendment “alleged” before executing the Deed of Sale on behalf of Her Majesty the Queen.
Parliament would not have approved the purchase of this property or the payment of Mr Titford’s debts if it had known the claim was false and the debts unaccountable. The Crown Law Office and the Minister of Justice took it upon themselves to make this decision. Once the amendment was accepted by the Crown Law Office and initialled and the Deed executed by the Minister of Justice, the sale was based on false pretences. From the documents, it seems public money was used without the knowledge or approval of Parliament.
From the documentation we have on file and the legal advice we have received, it is highly unlikely that this sale would stand up in a court of law!
As the Commissioner of Police, “is not subject to Government direction on whether or not (and, if so, how) to investigate alleged offending”, we ask that he investigate that public money may have been used to purchase a property under false pretences to settle a false claim and the payment of Mr Titford’s unaccountable debts as part of the purchase price.
Yours sincerely,
Ross Baker.
Researcher, One New Zealand Foundation Inc.
See letter to Commissioner/attachments, UNACCOUNTABLE EXPENDITURE OF TAXPAYERS FUNDS,