Tauranga's council will decide in a few hours whether to hand a property back to a local Maori trust

Tauranga's council will decide in a couple of hours whether to return a property to a local Maori trust.

The land at 11 Mission St was lent by local Maori to missioners in the 19th century - and it was then wrongly sold.

Former Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy is urging the Council to follow through on the planned hand-back, especially after public submissions on the transfer turned ugly.

She says some of the comments in the submissions were extremely offensive and racist.