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Wai 2358, #A87 Wai 903, #A36 Crown Impacts on Customary Maori Authority over the Coast, Inland Waterways (other than the Whanganui River) and associated mahinga kai in the Whanganui Inquiry District Cathy Marr June 2003 Table of contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 2 Figure 1: Area covered by this Report with Selected Natural Features ................................ 7 Chapter 1 Whanganui inland waterways, coast and associated mahinga kai pre 1839 .............. 8 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 8 1.1 The Whanganui coast and inland waterways ................................................................. 8 Figure 2: Waterways and Coast: Whanganui Coastal District ............................................. 9 1.2 Traditional Maori authority over the Whanganui environment... ................................. 20 1.3 Early contact ............................................................................................................. 31 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 37 Chapter 2 The impact of the Whanganui purchase 1839-1860s ............................................... 39 ~ Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 39 J 2.1 The New Zealand Company Purchase 1839-40 .......................................................... .40 2.2 Crown intervention and the repurchase of the Wanganui settlemenL ......................... 51 Figure 3: Map of 1848 Purchase ......................................................................................... 71 2.3 A small trading village? 1848-1865 ............................................................................ 76 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 86 Chapter 3 The impact of extensive land purchasing on traditional authority ........................... 90 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 90 3.1 The Native Land Court process and customary interests in resources ......................... 91 3.2 The Native Land Court process and the alienation ofWhanganui lands ..................... 99 3.3 Extensive land purchasing in the Whanganui district 1870s-1920s ........................... 102 3.4 Alternatives to land purchases - vesting and leasing ................................................. 114 3.5 The impact of extensive land alienation ..................................................................... 120 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 128 Chapter 4 The assertion and delegation of Crown authority - foreshores and waterways ..... 133 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 133 4.1 Crown authority - foreshores, and larger inland waterways ....................................... 134 4.2 Crown delegation of authority - municipal and provincial agencies 1840s-1876 ..... 139 4.3 Territorial, municipal and special purpose local authorities from 1876 ..................... 149 4.4 Environmental planning regimes ................................................................................ 161 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 178 Chapter 5 Acclimatisation, wildlife and conservation ............................................................ 180 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 180 5.1 Acclimatisation - introduced plants and animals ........................................................ 181 5.2 Legal recognition of acclimatisation societies ............................................................ 194 5.3 Crown control of coastal fisheries .............................................................................. 197 5.4 Crown control over the harvesting of indigenous wildlife ......................................... 205 5.5 The conservation and protection of indigenous flora and fauna and remaining natural areas .................................................................................................................................... 214 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 225 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 227 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 235 11 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Fiona Small and James Mitchell of the Waitangi Tribunal for their management support during the course of research and writing this report. I would also like to thank all those claimants who gave advice and information on relevant issues. Special thanks are also due to Jenny Skinner for her research assistance and additional drafting of sections for the acclimatisation chapter and on carrot washing. I am also very grateful for the assistance of staff of various institutions contacted for information for this report. In particular, Penny Allen, Archivist, and Richard Munneke, Environment Manager at Wanganui District Council; Libby Sharpe, Archivist, Whanganui Regional Museum; Noelene Wevell, Archivist, Helmut Janssen, EcologistiEnviromnental Scientist; Harold Barnett, Environmental Scientist; and Andrea Harris, Senior Policy Analyst, Horizons.mw; Peter Hill, Manager, Taranaki and Wellington Fish and Game Councils and Simon Bloor, Business Services Manager, Department of Conservation, Wanganui Conservancy. While I am most grateful for all the assistance received, I take full responsibility for any) " ",? inferences made in this report and any errors or omissions. 1 Introduction This report was written for the Waitangi Tribunal over an eight month period between August 2002 and April 2003. Some of the early part of this period was worked on a part-time basis due to other research commitments. An additional ten weeks research assistance was provided later in the project by Jenny Skinner. Research for this report began with a preliminary search of all relevant claim documents for the Whanganui inquiry and a search of published documents for the Whanganui region, including various planning and policy documents produced by district and special purpose authorities. This was followed by a research hui held at Putiki marae on 7 September 2002 to establish communications with claim groups and discuss relevant claim issues in more detail. Following this, more detailed primary research was undertaken using file records from a variety of relevant government agencies at Archives New Zealand and diary and manuscript material from the National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library. Searches were also {.-~'<"~~ made at the Ministry for the Environment and Department of Conservation libraries in \ }' Wellington and the Earth Sciences Library at Victoria University Wellington. Other agencies contacted in Wellington included the Ministry of Fisheries and the Fish and Game Council. Research visits were also made to various agencies in the Whanganui region. These included current territorial authorities, Horizons.mw and the Whanganui District Council as well as the Wanganui conservancy of the Department of Conservation. Various regional repositories of historical records were also contacted and visited including the Whanganui Regional Museum, the Whanganui Library, the Whanganui Maori Land Court and the Whanganui District Council Archive. Following this initial research, the report was largely written up in the period from February to mid-April 2003 while additional research continued to fill gaps as they were identified. Research for this report began at a time when the boundaries of the Whanganui inquiry district still had to be finally established. The research brief therefore outlined tentative preliminary boundaries, as will be described, on the understanding that further research might be required if final boundaries were extended. The focus of this report is also on coastal and inland waterway areas and therefore natural features such as watersheds, river courses and mountain ranges feature more prominently than exact boundaries based on legal tenure. 2 The focus of research for this report is the waterways, coast and associated mahinga kai within the Whanganui district largely bounded by the Whangaehu, Whanganui, and Waitotara Rivers as shown in the attached map. Beginning at the coast at the Whangaehu River mouth the boundary follows the course of the Whangaehu and then Mangapapa rivers into the interior towards Waiouru before rejoining the upper reaches of the Whangaehu to its source on Ruapehu. The boundary then follows along the volcanic