Seabed Sickness

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NEW ZEALAND After a year of fierce public debate, a controversial law on ownership of the nation's foreshores and seabed passed its first reading in Parliament. Designed to bypass a Court of Appeal ruling that Maori tribes could apply for title to areas below the high-water line, the law vests ownership in the Crown but allows Maori to claim "ancestral connection" to parts of the coastline and insist on being consulted about their use. Maori leaders who object to the law say the foreshores are part of their people's heritage; opposition politicians say the law gives Maori more rights