Maori Customary Interests in the Port Nicholson District, 1820S to 1840S: an Overview
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...... , :t~"·;r:..r (OFFICIAll . , ~·it.,..,·:" Wai 145 .... 'Of " '~M:i Maori Customary Interests in the Port Nicholson District, 1820s to 1840s: An Overview by Alan Ward A report commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal October 1998 / •.... ~ '. I Contents Preface 1 Chapter 1 The nature of Maori rights to land 1 Chapter 2 Occupancy ofTe Whanganui-a-Tara in the early nineteenth century 12 Chapter 3 The first taua from the north 20 Chapter 4 The first heke: Te Heke Mai-i-Raro 28 Chapter 5 Further heke occupy the south-west coast and Te Whanganui-a-Tara 45 Chapter 6 The fmal helce and changing occupation ofTe Whanganui-a-Tara to 1835 60 Chapter 7 Departures for the Chatham Islands and changes in Te Whanganui-a-Tara 1835-1839 77 Chapter 8 Kuititanga, the Company transactions and their effect on Te Whanganui-a-Tara 104 Chapter 9 121 Port Nicholson 1840-1847 Chapter 10 Maori customary interests in the Port Nicholson district, 1820s to 1840s 147 Appendices Appendix A Commission 189 Appendix B Evidence of MarIihera Te Toru, Wellington Native Land Court minute book lC, pp.86-108, July 9, 1868 191 Appendix C Evidence of Moturoa Ropiha to the Spain Commission, OLC 1/635, National Archives, August 29 [1842] 196 Appendix D Evidence of Pomare to the Spain Commission, Scott Case, OLC 111022, National Archives, 6 June 1843; Evidence of Po mare I to the Spain Commission, Young case, OLC 111042, National Archives, 14 June 1843 198 AppendixE Ballara, Angela, 'Te Whanganui-a-Tara: Phases of Maori Occupation of Wellington Harbour c.1800-1840', in David Hamer and Roberta Nicholls (eds.), The Making o/Wellington, 1800-1914, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1990, pp 9-34. 201 Bibliography 219 ',-' Lists of Maps Some Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Port Nicholson Place Names 11 Ngati Ira/Ngati Kahungunu - Te Whanganui-a-Tara c1825 19 Ngati Tama/Ngati Mutunga - Te Whanganui-a-Tara c1825 59 Some WellingtonIHutt Valley Place Names c1840s 64 Some WellingtonIHutt Valley Place Names c1990s 65 Te Mamaku's Boundaries 93 ( "" .... reface 1.1 Credentials. My name is Alan Dudley Ward. 1 am Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales. 1 have researched and published extensively in the history of relations between Maori and Palceha for over thirty years and have completed several commissioned reports for the Waitangi Tribunal. These include the 'National Overview' report of the Rangahaua Whanui programme, dated May 1996, where my credentials are stated in full. I 1.2 Sources: TIns overview report concentrates on the area of the Port Nicholson purchase and its immediate environs, only referring to matters beyond that district insofar as they bore closely on customary rightholding within it. It has focused on the years specified in my commission, the 1820s to the 1840s, and particularly upon the years 1834-44, from just prior to the New Zealand Company transactions to the period when the Crown's awards significantly modified the customary rightholding. It appraises a number of reports prepared by historians on behalf of claimants or at the direction of the Tribunal in respect of customary interests, notably those of Ms Penny Ehrhardt, Ms Joy Hippolite and Messrs Richard Boast, Tony Walzl, Duncan Moore, Neville Gilmore and Robert McClean.2 1 have attempted to check their statements both against each other, and against: (a) The evidence in the main published sources - notably the early writings of Elsdon Best, S Percy Smith, Alexander Shand, T W Downes, C Heaphy.3 I Alan Ward, National Overview, Vol I, Waitangi Tribunal Rangahaua Whanui Series, 1997, p.Vl 2 PemlY Ehrhardt, Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Customary Tenure, l750-l850, Waitangi Tribunal Research Series, no 3, 1993; Joy Hippolite, 'Ngati Rangatalll', Wai 145, Doc H4, 1997; Richard Boast, 'Ngati Toa in the Wellington Region', Wai 145 Doc H8 and supporting papers Doc H8(a) andH8(b), 1997 and 'Ngati Toaand the Colonial State',Wai 145, K2, and SUll1illary K2(b), 1998; Tony Walzl, 'Ngati Tama in Wellington (1820-1920)" Wai 145 Doc H7, 1997 and supporting papers Doc H7(a); Duncan Moore, 'The Origins of the Crown's Demesne at Port Nicholson, 1839-1846', Wai 145, Doc E3, E4 and E5, 1995; Neville Gilmore, 'The Myth ofthe Overlords: Tenure in Whanganui a Tara, 1819-1847', Wai 145, G3, 1996; Robert McClean, 'Te Whanganui-a-Tara Foreshores Reclamations Report', Wai 145, Doc 19, 1998 3 Elsdon Best, 'Te Whanganui-a-Tara: Wellington in Pre-Palceha days', Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 10, 1901, pp. 107-165 and 'The Land of Tara and they who settled it' , Journal ofthe Polynesian Society, Vol. 26, 1917, pp. 143-69, and Vol. 27, pp. 21-25, 49-71, 99- i ,b) A reading, so far as time allowed, of the main unpublished primary sources, notably the Old Land Claims records of the NZ Company claims and other claims in the Port Nicholson area, and a selection of the Native Land Court minute books focused upon that area.4 I have focussed upon the record of initial hearings in the Port Nicholson area in the Wellington, Otald and Wairarapa minute books, and scanned other minute books by means of the University of Aucldand Library index of block names, individual names and hapu names. My lmowledge of Te Reo Maori is limited but I have had access to translations ofNLC Wellington Minute Book 1 H by Dr Angela Ballara and to a selection of relevant references in Maori language sources in the Alexander Turnbull Library by Mr Steven Chrisp.5 (c) The independent scholarly research of Dr Ann Parsonson and Dr Angela Ballara. The work ofthese two scholars commends itself above all the other writings cited, for three reasons: (i) It is pure academic research, not shaped by the Treaty claims processes or by any particular claims within them. Dr Parsonson's PhD thesis 'He whenua te utu (the payment will be land)' was completed in 1978.6 Dr Ballara's research for her doctoral thesis 'The maldng ofNgati Kahungunu' began in the early 1980s.7 The thesis was completed in 1991 but a chapter derived 114, 165-77 and Vol. 28, pp. 1-17, 79-96, 123-33; S Percy Smith, History and Traditions ofthe Maori ofthe West Coast North Island ofNew Zealand Prior to 1840, New Plymouth, Polynesian Society, 1910, and Maori Wars of the Nineteenth Century, 1910; Alexander Shand, 'The Occupation ofthe Chatham Islands by the Maoris in 1835', Journal ofthe Polynesian Society, Vol. 1, 1892, pp. 83-94, 154-63,202-9 and VoL 2, pp. 74-86; T W Downes, 'Life of the Ngati Kahu-ngunu Chief Nulru-Pewapewa', Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, 45, 1912, pp.364-375; Charles Heaphy, 'Notes on Port Nicholson and the Natives in 1839', Transactions and Proceedings ofthe New Zealand Institute, 12, 1879, pp.32-39 4 The Old Land Claims records and Native Land Court minute books are held at National Archives (NA), Wellington 5 Angela Ballara, 'Translation of Maori Verbatim Evidence, Wellington Native Land Court Minute Book IH', Wai 145, Doc J6, 1998; Steven Chrisp, 'Sources ofMuaupoko History in the Port Nicholson Deed District: Sources Held in the Alexander Turnbull Library', Wai 145, Doc J7, 1998 and 'Sources for Rangitane History in the Port Nicholson Deed District: Sources Held in the Alexander Turnbull Library', Wai 145, Doc J8, 1998 6 Ann Parsonson, 'He Whenua te Utu: the Payment will be Land', PhD Thesis, University of Canterbury, 1978 7 Angela Ballara, 'The Origins of Ngati Kahungunu', PhD Thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, 1991 ii ..rom the research and entitled 'Te Whanganui-a-Tara: phases of Maori occupation of Wellington Harbour c. 1800-1840' was published in 1990, in the sesqui-centennial volume The Making of Wellington 1800-1840, edited by David Hamer and Roberta Nicholls.8 Following further research on other districts of New Zealand Dr Ballara published her book Iwi: the dynamics of Maori tribal organisation.from c.1769 to c.1945 earlier this year.9 (ii) It is far more exhaustive of primary source material than any of the recent submissions to the Tribunal concerning the Wellington Tenths claims. Both scholars read Land Court minutes and other manuscript sources, in both English and Maori, for many years, together with published and unpublished New Zealand and British official records, not to mention the various published sources such as the early writings of Best, Smith and others. Almost all the recent writers of claim submissions draw upon Parsonson's and Ballara's work to some extent. (iii) Their work is deeply analytical as to the stmcture and functioning of Maori society, its belief and value systems and the various ways by which Maori rights to land were gained and strengthened or wealcened and lost. Unlike any of the reports for claimants, they explicate the relevant social principles and processes and then show how these operated in practice, in the dynamic situations of migration and war, among all the interacting tribes in various districts, including Te Whanganui-a-Tara. Dr Parsonson's work is the most detailed in respect of the heke from Kawhia and Taranald into Te Whanganui-a-Tara; Dr Ballara's on the rights of the previous occupants, and the changing patterns of occupancy in the harbour and its environs as the heke arrived. 1.3 Weighting of evidence: (a) It is well known that all historical evidence is incomplete and partial. It reflects the perceptions and intentions of its authors, inadvertently or sometimes deliberately. The professional historian, writing at a later age, has to try to piece it together to malce as complete and accurate a picture as possible.