A shareholder of a Far North Maori organisation says police have all but given up trying to find out who set fire to a sales office on coastal customary land.
The building on Matauri Bay whenua was burned down at the end of January.
It was owned by the Matauri X Incorporation, which is attempting to sell subdivisions to clear a $15 million debt that grew following a failed venture into a water bottling business.
Shareholder Dover Samuels says detectives are being stonewalled by the community and have virtually given up because the whanau and iwi have tightened up.
Mr Samuels - a former Maori Affairs Minister under Labour - says when nothing is divulged to the police, they have nowhere to go.