K.J. Landaus
Milton Motel Apartments
1/19 Sheehan Street
Milton
Brisbane 4064
9 December 1998
Sir Brian Elwood
Chief Ombudsman
Office of the Ombudsmen
PO Box 10152
Wellington
Dear Sir
Thank you for your letter of 21 October 1998.
I am grateful for your actions on these matters.
To date I have not generally described the extreme anguish and personal losses I have suffered due to the Crowns actions relating to my complaints to your office and I do not think it necessary to do so as I think by now it would be quite obvious to you from the documentation I have supplied.
However I think it important that your office is aware that the Crown undertook a service to provide and promote the opportunity for all New Zealander’s to explore, prospect and mine Crown owned minerals subject to the respective mining Act’s including the right to access Crown Land.
My mining privilege applications, made well previous to the Ngai Tahu (Pounamu Vesting) Act, specifically delineated the area’s of my discoveries.
The Crown and Ngai Tahu have now benefited from this information provided to them via my statutory applications. Nothing was known of the existence of such deposits prior to the lodging of my applications.
I am greatly concerned that it is not morally or legally justified that the Crown could gift this mineral resource I have legitimately claimed with priority right, to other concerns, after accepting the applications and fee’s in good faith pursuant to the Statutes.
I consider the Minister of Energy’s decline of my application solely on the grounds that the Crown has gifted the minerals to other private parties as an injustice never before seen in New Zealand’s history, especially when no provision was made for adequate compensation for the very valuable contribution I have made to the national economy and now the Ngai Tahu people.
I have instructed my lawyer to file for a Judicial Review to the High Court but will delay any sitting until I have received your final investigation report.
Yours sincerely
Kenn J Landaus