King says Maoris have always owned water

His people believe him

Well of course they do.

via Maori have always owned water – 3 News.

Earlier today King Tuheitia told the national hui on the issue that Maori have always owned water.

The big chiefs and the long-time activists were at Turangawaewae to discuss one issue – water – and looking for one thing – unity.

So, King Tuheitia told the hui “we’ve always owned the water”; you’re quite sure that the hui didn’t tell him? Because I was under the firm impression that the purpose of a hui was to find the will of the people, not to announce it to them.

Just one question: why do Maoris say they own the water, when no other race on Earth believes that they do?

Do they know what water is?

water

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14 Thoughts on “King says Maoris have always owned water

  1. Andy on 13/09/2012 at 9:15 pm said:

    They also claim to own the wind. I guess the Sun is next

  2. Richard C (NZ) on 13/09/2012 at 9:51 pm said:

    They own the water (and presumably are responsible for it) which by extension is the hydrological cycle.

    Therefore they can be sued for droughts and floods (extreme weather), heavy snowfall, no snowfall, hail damage, tsunamis, king tides etc.

    Careful what you wish for.

  3. Gary Kerkin on 14/09/2012 at 8:26 am said:

    I would have thought that prior to the introduction of agriculture which required irrigation, reticulated town water supply, and hydroelectricity generation water had no value.

  4. Richard C (NZ) on 14/09/2012 at 12:15 pm said:

    Psalm 65:9
    Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.

    Maori culture gazumps Christian culture it seems.

    • Richard C (NZ) on 14/09/2012 at 12:24 pm said:

      Revelation 21:6
      And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

      Spiritual analogy of course, but there is an implication……

    • Richard C (NZ) on 14/09/2012 at 12:38 pm said:

      “Spiritual analogy of course” – Apparently not, just other-realmish.

      Revelation 22:1
      And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

      I wonder if Maori own that water too.

  5. David on 14/09/2012 at 12:20 pm said:

    I’m stunned. I really am. Someone actually watches TV 3!

  6. Robin Pittwood on 14/09/2012 at 12:31 pm said:

    And the TV arrives by electromagnetic waves. I think they own the radio spectrum too, don’t they.

    • Andy on 14/09/2012 at 12:44 pm said:

      and internet domains – .maori.nz

      We are spiritually connected to our domain names (well I am anyway as mine is my own name)

    • Andy on 14/09/2012 at 1:27 pm said:

      It’s possible to register internet domains maori.nz with macron characters now.

      So now you can be politically correct and have a domain name with macrons, but no one will visit your site because they can’t find the macrons on their keyboard

  7. Richard C (NZ) on 14/09/2012 at 1:11 pm said:

    Owning water is one thing but the energy of it is another thing entirely.

    Hydro energy occurs by virtue of mass, gravity and height but only if the structures are put in place to first of all create the height (a dam, that was never there pre-European) then the penstocks, turbines and generators (they were never there pre-European either).

    That is, potential energy was created by the dam builders (NZ taxpayer for public works, not Maori) then kinetic energy harnessed by the generation structure builders (again NZ taxpayers for public works, not Maori).

    Without a dam the only energy to be harnessed is run-of-river by immersion of tidal-type micro turbines but that energy is still by virtue of natural height that was in place pre-Maori and a result of tectonic upheaval over a geologic timeframe far longer than Maori discovery and habitation.

    The same can be said for public water reservoirs and non-bore irrigation systems.

    And further to my earlier comment, Maori have a problem claiming ownership of river water when that water is transient, it circulates via the hydrological cycle of which Maori have no control over in terms of scope (ocean. atmosphere, land) or rate (river flow volume, snows, ocean evaporation, precipitation etc).

    I think they are biting off more than they can chew.

  8. Richard C (NZ) on 14/09/2012 at 2:06 pm said:

    Did the Waikato River exist prior to the Taupo eruption and subsequent lake formation?

    If not (I don’t think it did), Maori are claiming ownership (in the case of the Waikato River) of something that evolved geologically (i.e. naturally) by volcanism. The origin of the river therefore is volcanism, are Maori claiming ownership of that too?

    Volcanism of New Zealand
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    The volcanism of New Zealand has been responsible for many of the country’s geographical features, especially in the North Island and the country’s outlying islands. It has also claimed many lives.

    While the land’s volcanic history dates back to before the Zealandia microcontinent rifted away from Gondwana 60-130 million years ago, activity continues today with minor eruptions occurring every few years. This recent activity is primarily due to the country’s position on the boundary between the Indo-Australian and Pacific Plates, a part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and particularly the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Indo-Australian Plate.

    New Zealand’s rocks record examples of almost every kind of volcanism observed on Earth, including some of the world’s largest eruptions in geologically recent times.

  9. Stanley on 15/09/2012 at 6:24 pm said:

    Aren’t human bodies 90% water? If so, does this mean that maori people are mainly owned by other maori people?

    It will be interesting if the Ngapuhi Iwi claim that they own 90% of Tainui, or vice-versa.

    What about the rain? Does the king own in on the way down or only when it lands?

    If all of us taxpayers buy the ownership from the Maori, how are we going to divvy it up? Percentages? Litres? Come to think of it, how do they divvy it up?

  10. Andrew W on 18/09/2012 at 6:09 pm said:

    Wonder how long till they claim ownership of rainfall and start charging farmers for it, and come to think of it, surely they also own the sunlight that falls on Aotearoa.

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