A Call to World Citizens and Ethical Investors to Boycott Westpac Banking Corporation NZ

Maori owned 66,400,000 acres of land in 1840. Maori population stood at about 250,000. Two generations later, by 1891, the Maori Land was reduced to one sixth of the original holding (11,079,486 Acres) and so was Maori population, decimated by Pakeha (white Europeans) to 42,000.

The Bank of New South Wales, later Westpac Banking Corporation, opened 7 branches in New Zealand in 1861, which facilitated and was enormously enriched by the theft of Maori land, gold and all other resources. Westpac is now New Zealand's largest bank, with 30,000 shareholders. Apply Pareto's Principle, the 80/20 rule, and the number of major shareholders who own more than 80 percent of the wealth in NZ falls below 6,000.

Surely such grand larceny of unimaginable proportions cannot and must not be allowed to stand. The flow of wealth must be reversed, and Maori grievances must be redressed. But how do you compensate a People for the pillage, rape and murder of nearly one quarter of a million of their nation? How would you determine the value of a single human life? What compensation could you possibly offer to a People who have been victimized and subjected to more than one and a half century of murder, repression, injustice and dispossession?

Nothing can fully compensate for the loss of a loved one, let alone a quarter of a million loved ones. You can never undo the atrocities of the militarized foreign aggressors perpetrated against Maori, or world's other indigenous Peoples. However, there are measures that can and must be taken to redress at least some of their grievances.

MSRB is calling on world citizens, all smart, ethical investors, foreign and domestic, and New Zealanders with a social conscience to boycott Westpac New Zealand until such time the bank and their major shareholders have compensated Maori and other deprived New Zealanders as follows:

1. Return to Maori the 66,400,000 acres of land that they possessed in 1840.

2. Transfer to Maori as a means of reparation forty percent (40%) of the money and all other assets held by Westpac New Zealand and their major shareholders.

3. Create a substantial fund comprising of at least forty percent (40%) of the money and all other assets held by Westpac New Zealand and their major shareholders to help alleviate the widespread suffering among the deprived New Zealand children and their families, which is created by the minority greed, and predatory banking practices.

Notes:

[www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.14/NZ_Long_NGO_Report.pdf]

1. Poverty Measurement Project (1995), conducted by reputable academics and researchers, found that 32.6 percent of children [and by extension their families] in New Zealand live below a poverty threshold of 60 percent of the median disposable income.

2. The incidence of poverty is more than two and a half times greater among Maori [however] than it is among Pakeha families.