A long-awaited Waitangi Tribunal report on whether Ngapuhi ceded sovereignty to the British Crown will be out in October.
The iwi has been waiting for three years for the Tribunal to report back on their sovereignty claims, which were heard in 2010 and 2011.
The northern hapu gave evidence that their tupuna who signed Te Tiriti believed they were giving the Crown not sovereignty, as Europeans understood it, but a limited right to govern and keep order.
The tribunal said until now, it had not set a final release date for its report because of uncertainty over tribunal resourcing - or the lack of it.
However Judge Craig Coxhead said the panel had completed its draft report of 600 pages and, all going well, the final version would be handed over to the claimants by the end of October.
