Clayton Hee offers state
debt suggestion

By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Clayton Hee says the state may want to look into settling a debt with native Hawaiians by providing fishing rights similar to the ones given Maori tribes in New Zealand.

"This is an example of what kind of creativity is necessary for the state and OHA to settle without detrimentally impacting the state treasury," said Hee.

The tribes' success is one of the subjects at a Maui Pacific Center conference this week at the Westin Maui in Kaanapali. It ends Thursday.

Scheduled to speak on the tribes' success at today's conference is Robin Hapi, a Maori and chief executive officer of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission.

The conference, sponsored largely through an East-West Center grant, brings together more than 100 people from 19 Pacific island nations, including New Zealand and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Hee who has visited the Waitangi operations said as a settlement, the New Zealand government gave Maori tribes 20 percent entitlement to certain fish species.

An amount is paid to the tribes for selling these fish. The government also gave the tribes $150 million, a third of which went to buying part of a multinational fishing company.

Hee said that if an Oahu Circuit Court decision stands on appeal, the state will have to pay between $400 million and $500 million to native Hawaiians for the use of ceded lands from 1980 to 1990.

He said by providing fishing entitlements, the state may be able to offset some of its debt.

Hapi said the 1992 fisheries settlement is viewed as a positive development for Maori tribes, which have been able to also start their own fishing companies.

Hapi said since the 1992 fisheries settlement, the Maori tribes have been able to increase their assets to about $500 million.

The conference is also expected to review the impact of the Asian financial crisis in the Pacific.

Wali Osman, regional economist for Bank of Hawaii, said Asian countries are facing an oversupply of goods, such as steel, and are continuing to drive down prices in the United States.

"I believe we haven't seen the bottom of this," Osman said. "Ironically, most of the people producing these things couldn't buy them themselves."