On Crossing Continents this week, we revealed how what started as a dispute over land has become a tense battle over race relations, with potentially serious consequences for the future of New Zealand.
We asked for your comments on the issues our programme raised, and this is what you had to say:
This has really surprised me. I have recently returned from a month in New Zealand and during that time saw a very positive relationship between Maori and non-Maori people.
The Maori I spoke to appeared very accepting of the changes to their country since colonisation, even viewing it as progress.
 |  Either New Zealand is doing a very good job of hiding this from visitors or it is only an issue amongst a tiny minority |
Many white New Zealanders spoke of support for the Maori cultural renaissance. This was in stark contrast to the extreme differences between aboriginal and colonial Australia. Either New Zealand is doing a very good job of hiding this from visitors or it is only an issue amongst a tiny minority.
For the sake of one of the most stunning and welcoming countries I have ever visited, I hope it is the latter.
Paul
The foreshore issue is an opportunity for NZ to put racial disharmony to bed.
It is important to realise that Maori will retain their fishing rights and access rights as recognised by the Waitangi Treaty.
However, to then claim all the foreshore as their own would instantly segregate one part of society from another.
Do New Zealanders really want their beaches becoming like the French and Italian Riviera where you have to pay to lie on certain segments of the beach, or worse, not even have any access?
Where the whole country has that as a birth right and it is not as classified by race, wealth, or religion is the greatest gift to those who consider themselves New Zealanders.
NZ is now proudly a society that exists of Maori, white Europeans, Polynesians and Asians.
| I applaud Brash for touching the nerve of equality |
Don Brash has been political-conveniently branded a xenophobe by the Labour-controlled media, but in a world where a majority of people are tiring of the political correctness that has infected us like a plague, Brash wishes to recognise these rights for everyone, and not grant an exclusive privilege to the few. I applaud Brash for touching the nerve of equality, thereby bringing to the surface now what could have erupted later in to something much bigger.
Leave the foreshore and seabeds to all New Zealanders, not the greedy few.
Karaka Farmers
The exceedingly rampant greed of the Maori in New Zealand was one of the factors that led to my emigrating to the UK, the country my parents left in 1960 for a better life in NZ.
I am proud to have been born a New Zealander and love my country, but as a result of the financially-motivated tribal guilt-tripping of a small group of Maori, I am very reluctant to ever return to my homeland.
| I am very sad to say that until a sense of sanity returns I will remain a ex-pat Kiwi |
While I admit that in some cases the Maori were unfairly treated, they have little cause for complaint about ill-treatment compared to Australian Aboriginals, native North Americans or black South Africans. Maori have never been excluded from society or prevented from achieving due to their race as these other groups have.
And I am very sad to say that until a sense of sanity returns I will remain a ex-pat Kiwi.
Gerrod Taylor
As is the case over most of the UK, I agree that the foreshore should be common land. The Maori have no more claim on it than those of European descendancy.
The Maori are only colonists themselves after all, not the original inhabitants of the islands.
Catherine
No one should own the foreshore or sea bed. Helen Clarke is absolutely right to nationalise it. The Maori already over fish areas of ocean because they feel "it is their right".
All New Zealanders should be treated equally. There must not be one law for white and another law for Maori.
Peter Steggle, potential emigrant to NZ
I have just arrived in New Zealand but am amazed at how much worse ethnic relations are compared to back in the UK.
How many countries in the world have not had some form of colonisation?
The Normans invaded England after all, and did the Maori not kick out the original tribes? Just live together, share in this beautiful country and enjoy it.
Paul
In Canada, the government could not unilaterally change ownership of the coast, as it would be a breach of aboriginal rights, contrary to the Canadian Constitution.
| It is hard not to view the act of the New Zealand government as a land grab from the Maori, who are a marine people dependent on the coast |
The debate is also beginning for British Columbia, Canada, particularly with offshore fishing and oil and gas rights. It is hard not to view the act of the New Zealand government as a land grab from the Maori, who are a marine people dependent on the coast.
The same debate, with even more onerous results to aboriginal people, is occurring in Australia.
If the law is designed to target the Maori, they should fight for their rights and culture, and the government should back down.
As the Maori are a minority of the population, I would not expect the majority of the population to support them. That is the tyranny of democracy, in the absence of minority safeguards.
M Muir
I am a Maori living in the UK. For a long time I have thought we have been pushing things too far. Claiming for air? Come on! I am ashamed to say it, but I feel embarrassed.
Enough is enough. It is time to start working together, to grow as a country. This path we are currently taking is only going to end in grief.
Matt
If Brash has a problem with the Maori receiving "fat cheques", or "the dole" , then there should be stricter laws relating directly to that issue.
| Taking away someone's heritage and life's blood so you can have a nicer Sunday afternoon? Shame on you |
This song and dance to take away Maori land as a means to "make one New Zealand" is unjust. There is plenty of coastline in New Zealand, so even if the bits of land the Maori have do become privatized, people in general should easily be able to find another place to take their picnics.
Taking away someone's heritage and life's blood so you can have a nicer Sunday afternoon? Shame on you.
Eileen Casey
Maori land belongs to the Maoris only.
Shamanballa
I spent nine wonderful months in New Zealand in 1994-5. The land is beautiful, as are the people, settlers and indigenous alike.
However from the perspective of being British I learned some disturbing things about colonialism while I was there.
| Those of us with white heritage would be wise to tread carefully as we make snap judgements |
Waitangi Day remembers one of the slaughters Britain reigned across their land. Those of us with white heritage would be wise to tread carefully as we make snap judgements about such situations, because we simply cannot understand severe reactions to owning and claiming land.
Since I visited NZ it has always been a paradise to me. My hope for this situation is that common ground will be found as New Zealanders.
Ken Franklin
I visited New Zealand last year, and I got the impression that a lot of coastline in the Bay of Islands was being snapped up by rich Americans. So I can see both points.
But when you see the fiasco at Rotorua over the access to the geysers, you see the government view also. Difficult to find a balance!
Philip
These racial discontents and disharmonies will only die out when planet earth is finally invaded by extraterrestrial beings.
Only then, will us human beings stop hating each other for our different skin colours and diversified cultures.
JL Choong
Being a New Zealander based overseas, in my case the US, I have seen the way the Native Americans have been, and are being treated here, in that they are not even seen or thought of as having a part in American culture.
I am proud of the way New Zealand and its people have acknowledged the Maori culture as part of our own and believe it is imbedded in being a New Zealander, unlike Australia or the US where the indigenous people are forgotten.
| It makes me so angry here is the US when you have private beaches with restricted parking to keep "unwanted" people away |
However I think the Maori tribes are taking this too far and believe the beaches and foreshore are for everyone to enjoy. It makes me so angry here in the US when you have these private beaches with restricted parking to keep "unwanted" people away.
That is one of the beauties of New Zealand, in that the beaches and the foreshore are there for everyone to enjoy.
The tribes - by continuing with this agenda - will be driving a wedge down the core of the country and its people, and in the end they will only be hurting themselves and their cause.
Greg Williams
As a New Zealander and member of the governing Labour party, I find this whole issue a disgrace to the other parties in the New Zealand government.
Some have claimed that Maori could have got, through the court process, full ownership of the foreshore and seabed in some areas. That is nonsense. The government stepped in, because it would not have benefited anyone to have a situation where the Maori had absolute ownership or none at all.
Unfortunately, the government is in a minority, so could not put through the legislation that would have placed the ownership of the foreshore and seabed with the public, outside of the government, as we have managed with other significant landmarks such as Tongarairo National Park, and had clear guidelines for Maori cultural rights to them.
Instead it has been forced to pass legislation nationalising the foreshore and seabed, and requiring Maori to go to a court to determine their access on the basis of cultural rights.
These rights were guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi, and so have to be protected.
However, certain Maori leaders have been so radical, claiming they will start civil wars and so on, that they deserve titles such as "wreckers and haters"..
Stephen Cooper
I just wonder how the citizens of the US would react if George Bush wanted to "nationalize" rightfully-owned shoreline so some people could go "bbq" and litter at will?
Asyukeeper
Why not let the 'colonisers' pay out 40% of their gross income for the next 100 years for beach privileges?
That seems fair for years of social inequity, marginalisation, and the attempted eradication of a native culture.
Isaac
This has always been a hot and sensitive issue not only in New Zealand.
I am happy if the Maori agreed to give up the coastline for everybody to use for economic and business developments, picnics etc.
I am a foreigner and I would be very happy if I happened to visit New Zealand and were able to go to the coastal area freely.
However, the right is with the Maori and I believe that other New Zealanders must compromise and be very wise with their proposed bills regarding the coastal line.
Another option is buying the coastal area from the Maori people if the government really needs it.
Mateaki Fonua
New Zealand is a civilised country. What is next? Reservations, so all the new folk can get back the land that was not theirs in the first place?
James Clarke
This is what happens when you go overseas and plant your flag on someone else's land and claim it for your own!
Abid Bashir
The government has a policy in place which gives access to all New Zealanders but acknowledges the special link Maori have to the seabed and foreshore.
| Don Brash seeks to force Western values down the throat of people who are not living in a Western country by choice |
These are the key aims that need to be achieved for this bill to be acceptable. Don Brash, for all his claims of not being racist, is, at the very least, culturally imperialist. His point of view is that European ideas are more important, and more correct, than Maori ideas.
He seeks to force Western values down the throat of people who are not living in a Western country by choice. It has been forced upon them.
Perhaps the easiest way to sort the mess out is for the government to admit it has confiscated the land, and then to allow for redress in negotiations.
There is already a process in place for this, the Waitangi Tribunal and claims process.
Greg Stephens
One-Minute World News 
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