New Zealand Prime Minister John Key apologised Thursday for a joke suggesting that an indigenous Maori tribe he is in dispute with over a compensation settlement were cannibals, according to dpa. Key has been at loggerheads with the North Island Tuhoe tribe this week after ruling out giving it ownership of the 212,672-hectare Urewera National Park as part of a compensation package for past wrongs committed by successive European governments. In a speech to a tourism audience, Key said, "The good news is that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou as opposed to their neighbouring iwi (tribe), which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been dinner, which wouldn't have been quite so attractive." It was later revealed that he was repeating the joke he first made when speaking to a dinner hosted by the Ngati Porou tribe two days earlier. After a storm of protest from leaders of New Zealand's 500,000-strong Maori population, including Tuhoe, Key told reporters, "Ah look, it was a light-hearted joke, a bit of self-deprecating humour, but if anyone is offended, then I deeply apologize." It is commonly accepted that before Europeans arrived in New Zealand Maori tribes practised cannibalism as a final humiliation on defeated rivals in battle. Key's comment came as relations between the government and Tuhoe, who are said to number about 35,000, cooled this week, with their chief negotiator Tamati Kruger claiming that Key withdrew an agreement in principle to restore ownership of the national park, which is their homeland, to the tribe as a peace offering. Kruger said the proposal, made during compensation negotiations, was due to go before the cabinet for approval on Monday but Key scrapped it after the plan was criticised by backbenchers and grassroots members of his conservative National Party. Kruger said he was not insulted by the joke, but "it gives me the sense that whatever we say or do he will never, ever, take it seriously. "He is affirming a rigidness which is not really in the spirit of good faith negotiations." Members of the Tuhoe tribe have long campaigned for complete independence from the rest of the country and Kruger told the New Zealand Press Association that the Tuhoe and the crown had often been at odds since as early as the 1800s - when European immigrants first settled the then British colony - and there were not many times when peace prevailed. Kruger said the joke was not funny, in poor taste and unbecoming of a prime minister. The Maori Party, which co-operates with the Nationals in government, accused Key of acting in bad faith. Maori Member of Parliament Te Ururoa Flavell, whose electorate includes Tuhoe's tribal area, told Radio New Zealand the joke was unfortunate and would add to the iwi's wounds.
