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?

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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