The Land Story – Crofton/Ngaio Methodist Presbyterian and Union

1 THE LAND STORY – CROFTON/NGAIO METHODIST PRESBYTERIAN AND UNION CHURCHES The Crofton/Ngaio Methodist, Presbyterian and Union land story covers the earliest aspects of Maori history of the area, the initial sales to the New Zealand Company, and a brief resume of subsequent occupants, purchasers, titles and building in order to answer the key questions posed by the Connexion. The story of the groups who planned and used the churches is told fully in First a church... the continuing story of Ngaio Methodist, Presbyterian and Union Churches by Elaine E Bolitho, published December 2004 by the Ngaio Union Church. Ngaio Union’s parish boundaries also include the former Cashmere Methodist Community Centre (111 Cashmere Avenue, Khandallah) demolished in 2001. The story of this property, and its regeneration as the Cochran Hall at the Cashmere Avenue School is told in the Cashmere Land Story, and in The Vision Restored, published by Ngaio Union Church in May 2003. Ngaio Union, as the legal successor to the proceeds held in trust from the Cashmere land sale, was granted funding for approved capital work on the Ngaio Union property, thus ensuring that in 2005 all buildings were fully compliant. Contents Key Questions asked in Our Land Story The successive tangata whenua of Te Whanganui-a-Tara Tracing the division of the land, the titles and the owners (A) Methodist (B) Presbyterian Copies of Certificates of Title References NGAIO UNION CHURCH Ngaio Union Church July 2004 2 KEY QUESTIONS ASKED IN OUR LAND STORY Information Leaflet No 46, November 1991 How was the land originally obtained from the Maori people? Was the land purchased? In September 1839, Colonel William Wakefield, on behalf of the New Zealand Company, purchased the whole area of Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the Wellington Harbour) and the surrounding ranges for goods worth £400. This was known as the Port Nicholson purchase. Translators Dicky Barrett and Ngati were engaged to explain the deed of sale and the New Zealand Company’s land reserve system, whereby Maori would be granted one tenth of the land. Actually it was a case of one Maori section allocated for every ten settler sections — an eleventh. The sale was negotiated with Te Ati Awa chiefs, Te Wharepouri (who had been living at Ngauranga since 1836) and Te Puni (living at Petone), who saw the sale as a means of establishing the bounds of the recently migrated Te Ati Awa and Taranaki people. (For more detail about the earlier Maori activities in the area see the supplementary information in pages 6- 8 concerning the successive tangata whenua of Te Whanganui-a-Tara.) The ALEXANDER TURBULL LIBRARY PUBL —001 1-02-1 New Zealand Company’s proposal that The Maori chief Te Wharepouri. every “tenth” section would be set aside for Maori use gave rise to the term Wellington Tenths. Did the purchase have tribal consent? The majority of the previous Te Whanganui-a-Tara occupants — Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga (who may have intermarried with earlier Ngati Ira residents) — migrated to the Chatham Islands on board the Rodney. “In terms of traditional tenure, Ngati Mutunga had established an unchallenged right to large areas of the harbour, and this right they had formally transferred to Taranaki and Te Ati Awa in November 1835.” (Ballara p 30) 3 In 1835 Ngati Mutunga, by panui (announcement), made over their lands from Petone to Ngauranga (north east side) to their Te Ati Awa kinsman Te Matangi (later baptised Rawiri) and to his son Te Manihera Te Toru. These two cousins of Te Puni and Te Wharepouri had been living with Ngati Mutunga since 1832. When Wakefield moved on to Cloudy Bay, in the Marlborough Sounds, he was told that the land he had bought did not belong to the Te Ati Awa chiefs to sell, but that it belonged to Ngati Toa. He then negotiated a sale with Ngati Toa chiefs, including Te Rauparaha for a much wider area, but still including Te Whanganui-a-Tara. The Kapiti deed was supported by a second deed executed by Te Ati Awa in Queen Charlotte Sound on 8 November 1839. Both conveyed 20 million acres of land between the same extreme boundaries, centred on Cook Strait. In 1839, when the New Zealand Company first arrived in Port Nicholson, a remnant of Ngati Tama, who had not migrated to the Chatham Islands, were still living in a very damp pa at the mouth of the Kaiwharawhara Stream. Led by Te Kaeaea (Sparrow Hawk) — a huge, impressively tattooed man — they had travelled south from North Taranaki with Te Ati Awa in 1832. Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata gave the Ngati Tama people a hard time and ridiculed their leader by giving him the nickname Taringa Kuri (Old Dog’s Ear). In warm valleys inland from their pa, Ngati Tama were growing wheat, potatoes, maize and kumara — crops which would later help feed the growing settler population. Ngati Tama people would also build houses for settlers, sell firewood to them and, for sixpence, carry one across the Kaiwharawhara Stream Upstream along the track known today as Old Porirua Road, in a bush clearing, lay a potato ground in the area of today’s Trelissick Crescent in Ngaio. ONSLOW HISTORICAL SOCIETY REED BOOKS Te Kaeaea, also known as Taringa Kuri outside his sleeping house at the Kaiwharawhara Pa — painting by GF Angas. 4 Te Kaeaea — who had a warlike reputation — agreed to sell land, including the inland gardens, but feared Maori would lose mana by doing so. Using the name Taringa Kuri he signed the Treaty of Waitangi on board ship in the harbour on 29 April 1840. By this time a number of chiefs were repudiating the sale made by Te Wharepouri and Te Puni. How does the purchase stand in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi? The initial purchases were completed prior to the Treaty which embodies, in clause 2, a preemptive ruling concerning land sales. Backing this was Governor Hobson’s Land Titles Proclamation stating that the Queen would only acknowledge land titles derived from Crown Grants and that in future it would be illegal for Europeans to buy land directly from Maori. It further declared that a commission would look into all purchases made prior to annexation. In April 1840 the Treaty was brought to Wellington by the Rev Henry Williams, who had helped with the Treaty drafting. The day before Williams arrived, the New Zealand Company’s provisional constitution and ratification for the Wellington settlement was published in the first local edition of NEVILLE GILMORE the New Zealand Gazette (18 April Wellington signatories to the Trealy of Waitangi 1840). Colonel Wakefield initially include Taringa Kuri — seventh on the list. deterred Maori from signing the 5 Treaty, being concerned about the independence of his settlement. However, after Henry Williams agreed to give up his claim to 60 acres in the capital in return for one acre for him, and one for his assistant Reihana Rewiti (Richard Davis), Wakefield relented — possibly to be seen in a better light and retain the land claimed by the Company. Thirty-one rangatira, including Te Wharepouri of Ngauranga, Te Puni of Petone and Taringa Kuri of Kaiwharawhara, signed the Treaty on board ship in the harbour. Governor Hobson, concerned over the independence of Wellington and by the New Zealand Company’s claims, arrived in Wellington in August 1841 with the Chief Protector of Aborigines (George Clarke) to sort out local land grievances. Subsequently a Commission was set up in Britain to deal with the New Zealand Company’s claims. Land Commissioner William Spain ruled that the Company’s original purchase(s) were invalid, and allowed much smaller areas — 111,000 acres at Wellington, including the land around the harbour, and 50,000 at New Plymouth. Maori were to retain their pa, cultivations and burial grounds and be granted reserves. However rather than returning disputed urban land to Maori, the focus turned to compensation, paid to occupants of the Te Aro, Pipitea, Tiakiwai Kumototo, and Kaiwharawhara pa. The road from Wellington through Kaiwharawhara to Porirua was in use by June 1841, and the Kaiwharawhara area was highly desirable to settlers, having road and sea access, as well as water power for industries such as flour-milling and tanning. The New Zealand Company continued to resist settlement of the reserves issue, but this was finally clarified by the 1847 McCleverty awards. Most Maori settlements were around the harbour, and close to streams. The McCleverty Awards returned to Ngati Tama a small amount of their original land at the mouth of the Kaiwharawhara Stream. In 1885 four owners (Hon Paengahuru of Opunake, Amira Matoroirangi of Parikhake, Komene Paipa of Naiuakaiho and Matui Te Ire) leased 1 rood 19 perches of land to John Newton for 21 years at ten pounds per annum. He established the Caledonian Soap Works there, and sought to freehold the land. A Crown Grant for the land was finally made to Ngati Tama on 13 October 1893. Six months later the restrictions on alienation were removed and in November 1894 Newton was granted freehold title to 37.6 perches (CT 75/274). One of the Maori owners insisted on being paid in gold. Earlier, when their land near Trelissick Park became part of the Trelissick farm for Captain Edward Daniell (Ngaio’s first NZ Company settler), Ngati Tama received allocations of reserve land further inland. For instance they chose the Ngatoto Reserve, (Section 4A 72 acres 1 rood 23 perches). Later they sold this to farmer James Nairn who held early Presbyterian services in his farmhouse. Later again the farm became todays Nairnville Park.

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