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An 80-year-old man who received his marching orders from the place he called home for 20 years is vowing to stay, against the owner’s will.
Fred Carroll has lived on a block of land in Waimārama, Hawke’s Bay, since 2000. He claims that a woman who cared for the land on behalf of its owners told him that he could live there.
He put up a little bach, created a garden, paid fees, and has lived there ever since.
In 2017, Kiri Manuel, the surviving trustee of the Heni Gillies Whānau Trust, who owns two of the three shares in the land, told Carroll that he wanted to build a family home on his ancestral land.
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She asked him to leave the 4,200-square-meter block at the end of 2017.
Marty Sharpe / Stuff
Fred Carroll on the land he calls home in Waimarama, Hawke’s Bay.
Carroll refused to move, forcing Manuel to apply for a court order from the Maori Land Court.
Manuel said that Carroll, who stopped paying fees in 2017, was trespassing and preventing his whānau from using and enjoying his own whenua.
He also said that Carroll had damaged the land by removing trees without permission.
It was also noted that Carroll had made several unsuccessful attempts to purchase the land over the years.
Carroll acknowledged that he was neither an owner of the land, nor a relative of an owner, but said that he had a relationship with the land through his descendants of Ngāti Rongomaiwahine, Ngāti Rakaipaaka and Ngāti Kahungunu, and that he should be allowed to stay there during the the rest of his life.
Marty Sharpe / Stuff
Carroll has lived on the land for 20 years.
That relationship, he said, meant that he had the right to occupy the land and that Manuel’s approach was incompatible with tikanga Māori.
Carroll denied damaging the land and said he cared for and protected it and had installed a sewage and water system.
In July of this year, Judge Layne Harvey granted the injunction and told Carroll that he had to vacate the land by the end of winter.
The judge said that Carroll had not presented any evidence to support his continued occupation of the land and that he was occupying the land illegally and without the consent of the owners.
“So, legally speaking, it is invading,” the judge said.
Carroll was given until October 13 to vacate the land. Later, Manuel moved it to November 13 to avoid “undue hardship” for Carroll.
MARTY SHARPE / Things
Richard Ropiha’s crime took place in Waimarama, Hawke’s Bay, pictured, and Hastings.
Carroll did not leave the property by that date and was sent a letter last week that included a court order requiring him to “vacate the property permanently and immediately and remove himself and his possessions, personal property and other materials.” of the land.
On Saturday, Carroll said he would not move and was confident that he would be able to claim whakapapa to the land through ancestral ties to the original Maori inhabitants.
“I am not poor. I just don’t want to move. I consider it my land and the land of my mokopuna, ”he said.
Manuel was contacted for comment.
