Why is the Anglican Church apologising to a couple of Tauranga sub-tribes for selling its land to the Crown in 1867 "without seeking their agreement"? There was no need to seek anybody's agreement since the Church Missionary Society had bought the land outright by two purchases in 1838 and 1839 – transactions that were ticked off by Governor Hobson's Land Commission after 1840 as conveyances that had been made freely between willing sellers and a willing buyer.

Either the Church is plain dumb or it is colluding with the tribal elite to deceive the public.

At the Anglican Synod in May 2018, the Church said that it would support an application to the Waitangi Tribunal by the Ngai Tamarawaho and Ngati Tapu to get some ‘compensation' (from the taxpayer) for this ‘grievance' that historically does not exist.

As we wrote in our recent book Gate Pa and Te Ranga: The Full Story "If the Anglican Church genuinely wants to create harmony and integrity in society, it should not be misrepresenting historical truths in support of a bogus claim for a non-existent grievance that has as its object the further enrichment of the tribal elite at the expense of the taxpaying public".

J McLean and J Robinson, Wellington.