Muaupoko Land and Politics Scoping Report
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Wai 2200, #A55 Muaupoko Land and Politics Scoping Report Jane Luiten July 2014 Wai 2200 Porirua ki Manawatu District Inquiry Report commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3 1. Muaupoko Ancestral Rights, 1820-1870 ........................................................................................... 6 1.1. Muaupoko 1820-1870 Bibliography ..................................................................................... 21 2. Nineteenth Century Land Alienation ............................................................................................... 43 2.1. Old Land Claims/New Zealand Company Purchases ........................................................... 43 2.2. Early Crown Purchases, 1840-1870 ...................................................................................... 45 2.3. Native Land Court Title and Partition, 1872-1886 ............................................................... 48 2.4. Land Alienation, 1886-1900 ................................................................................................. 59 2.5. Nineteenth Century Land Alienation Bibliography .............................................................. 68 3. Twentieth Century Land Alienation .............................................................................................. 114 3.1. Twentieth Century Land Alienation Bibliography ............................................................. 121 4. Lake Horowhenua .......................................................................................................................... 134 4.1. Lake Horowhenua Bibliography ......................................................................................... 146 5. Resource Loss/Degradation ........................................................................................................... 153 5.1. Resource Loss/Degradation Bibliography .......................................................................... 156 6. Outstanding Muaupoko Claims ..................................................................................................... 158 7. Scoping Recommendations ............................................................................................................ 161 Appendix: Commission ...................................................................................................................... 167 List of Tables Table 1: Muaupoko claims relating to loss of ancestral rights .............................................................. 12 Table 2: Early Crown purchases in Porirua ki Manawatu .................................................................... 45 Table 3: The Horowhenua Block partitions, 1886 ................................................................................ 51 Table 4: Muaupoko claims relating to Native Land Court title and partition ....................................... 53 Table 5: Muaupoko claims relating to land alienation, 1886-1900 ...................................................... 64 Table 6: Muaupoko claims relating to land alienation, 1900-2014 .................................................... 116 Table 7: Muaupoko claims relating to Lake Horowhenua .................................................................. 140 Table 8: Muaupoko claims relating to resource loss and degradation ................................................ 153 Table 9: Outstanding Muaupoko claims ............................................................................................. 158 List of Figures Figure 1: Map showing the geography and land blocks within the Wai 2200 Porirua ki Manawatu inquiry district ......................................................................................................................................... 5 2 Introduction This Scoping Report was commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal and represents 14 weeks of work, beginning in February 2014. The purpose of the report was to define the main issues arising from Muaupoko’s claims relating to land and politics; to scope out the extent of historical records relating to such issues, and to recommend how the substantive research might be structured. The commission itself is set out in the Appendix. A draft report was circulated to claimants for comment on 30 April 2014, and on 13 May I met with them in Levin to discuss what was proposed. I would like to thank all claimants for their very engaged and thoughtful response to the draft, and I appreciate also the support from the staff of the Waitangi Tribunal on this occasion. The feedback from these hui, together with the QA review, has materially affected the final result. For scoping purposes, Muaupoko’s claims have been organised into the themes of rangatiratanga, land alienation, Lake Horowhenua, resource loss and degradation, and outstanding matters. The scoping report largely follows a chronological order, dealing first with Muaupoko’s ancestral rights in the district and the very complex issues wrought by historical events which preceded the Crown’s coming. The consideration of land alienation that follows has been divided into two: the sweeping nineteenth century Native Land Court processes of title determination and partition, together with the direct intervention of the Crown in the late 1890s; and the more piecemeal attrition of Muaupoko’s remaining estate since 1900. The issues surrounding Muaupoko’s prized fishery of Lake Horowhenua is considered in its own section. The report then briefly considers other resource loss issues and outstanding matters, and how these may be dealt with. Bibliographies for each section have been prepared as fully as possible. Each section begins with a brief historical narrative, with the aim of providing context for the claims and issues that follow. Given the scoping nature of the project and the time constraints, this narrative has necessarily been drawn predominantly from secondary sources, drawing criticism that the scoping report serves only to regurgitate the received versions of history that Muaupoko object to so strongly. This applies particularly to the first part of the report dealing with the nature and extent of Muaupoko customary rights following war and the influx of other iwi. I would stress that it is a scoping report, and that Muaupoko claimants will have the opportunity to have their stories fully considered in the substantive report. I have a BA (Honours) degree from the University of Waikato, and I have been researching and writing for the Waitangi Tribunal process in different capacities since 1990, in between raising my 3 family. In the last six years I have focussed on the impact of local government on Maori communities within the inquiry districts of the East Coast and of Te Rohe Potae. I live and work in Gisborne. Jane Luiten June 2014 4 Waitangi Tribunal WAI2200 NI!.C Title Investigations", ea~y o CrONn purchases & other areas • Ot;oi~ Otamakapua Mangoira • -- Parae Karetu "''' ~ Whanganui Ri,,:r , • -" -.' - ... - •• Geography of the Porirua ki Manawatu inquiry district Figure 1: Map showing the geography and land blocks within the Wai 2200 Porirua ki Manawatu inquiry district (Source: Tribunal Staff, July 2010) 5 1. Muaupoko Ancestral Rights, 1820-1870 Muaupoko’s experience of colonisation cannot be understood without the historical context of developments in the region that preceded the Crown’s coming. Many of their claims relate to the undermining of Muaupoko mana – te tino rangatiratanga, kaitiakitanga, ancestral rights – by Crown actions or Crown neglect. In making such claims, particularly about events in the decades just after the Treaty of Waitangi, Muaupoko claimants are up against an established historical narrative which portrays them as a defeated people, with greatly reduced interests as tangata whenua in their once-vast domain. In the subsequent era of Native Land Court title determination, it is claimed that the mana of those who kept Muaupoko fires burning at Horowhenua was ignored or side-lined by the Crown. As the Te Tau Ihu Tribunal points out, while the Tribunal is not a judge of customary rights per se, it is expected to judge what the Crown duties were with reference to issues of customary usage and ownership, and whether it fulfilled them in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi.1 Te Tini o Muaupoko Muaupoko are said to have emerged as a distinct and powerful entity by the early eighteenth century, from closely-woven whakapapa developed over centuries of largely undisturbed occupation within Te Upoko o te Ika.2 The overview of Robyn Anderson and Keith Pickens suggests a geo-political region of old encompassing Te Whanganui a Tara, the Wairarapa and the Manawatu districts. They speak of a tangata whenua population by the early nineteenth century comprising Ngai Tara, Ngati Apa, Rangitane, Muaupoko and Ngati Ira, characterised by much intermarriage and little real conflict.3 Angela Ballara, drawing on the works of Carkeek and McEwen as well as Land Court records, relates that by 1800 Muaupoko’s many hapu occupied territories along the coast from Horowhenua to Titahi Bay, and on Kapiti and Mana islands.4 Muaupoko claimants maintain that Muaupoko mana extended to Wellington by virtue of their Ngai Tara whakapapa, and certainly Rod McDonald, born at the Hokio river mouth in the late 1860s, was brought up on stories of Muaupoko’s past eminence 1 Waitangi