Iwi paid $34m on top of Waitangi settlements

The Crown has paid an extra $34 million on top of Treaty of Waitangi settlements to two iwi.

Waikato Tainui was paid $16m, while $18m was paid to Ngāi Tahu.

Waikato Tainui and South Island iwi Ngāi Tahu were the first two large iwi to resolve their historic settlements with the Crown, in 1995 and 1997.

The settlements included a clause ensuring the payout would always be 17 percent (Waikato-Tainui) and 16 percent (Ngāi Tahu) of the total amount given to all iwi.

Since their initial settlements, Waikato Tainui received a total amount of $289m and Ngāi Tahu a total of $297m from the crown.

Minister of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little said that number would continue to rise.

"The reality is we've still got a lot of settlements left to do, and of course we've got a big one in Ngāpuhi so there will be further payments made under the relativity mechanism clause to Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui."

The major findings in the Ngāi Tahu Ancillary Claims Report 1995 found Ngāi Tahu were left virtually landless following large-scale Crown purchases in the 1840s, leaving the iwi with just one-thousandth of their former tribal estate.

The remaining land was diminished further for public works including transport services and was taken, in most cases, without any consultation at all.

In 1995 Waikato Tainui estimated the loss of land in their tribal estate to be worth $12 billion, but a redress payment of just $170m was paid by the Crown, less than 2 percent of the amount estimated by the iwi.

Mr Little said the crown would continue to honour the relativity clause, and acknowledged it would never amount to what was owed by the crown.