'The Key-Stone of the District': the Crown Purchase of the Mahia Block

'The Key-stone of the District': The Crown Purchase of the Mahia Block, 1864 Elizabeth Cox Waitangi Tribunal 1999 Contents INTRODUCTION 3 MAP ONE: MAHIA PENINSULA CROWN PURCHASE AND NATIVE LAND COURT BLOCK DIVISIONS 6 CHAPTER ONE: THE MAHIA PENINSULA BEFORE 1864 7 MAORI OCCUPATION OF THE PENINSULA 7 THE MUSKET WARS AND THE REFUGEES ON THE PENINSULA, 1820-1840 14 EARLY MAORI·PAKEHA CONTACT 16 CHAPTER TWO: CROWN PURCHASE OF THE MAHIA BLOCK, 1864 26 THE NEGOTIATIONS AND SALE OF THE MAHIA BLOCK 31 THE DISPUTES BEGIN 33 CHAPTER THREE: TWENTIETH CENTURY PROTESTS 45 SIM COMMISSION, 1927 47 NATIVE LAND COURT INVESTIGATION, 1938 49 ROYAL COMMISSION, 1948 52 THE FATE OF THE MAHIA RESERVES 59 KlNIKINI 59 KAIUKU 61 OTHER LAND RETURNED TO IHAKA WHAANGA 64 CONCLUSION 67 APPENDIX ONE: CONTEMPORARY MAPS 72 MAP Two: SKETCH MAP A ITA CHED TO THE MAHIA BLOCK DEED, 1864 73 MAP THREE: MAPAITACHED TO THEROYAL COMMISSION REPORT, 1948 74 MAP FOUR: MAP OF VARIOUS SECTIONS WITHIN MAHIA TOWNSHIP, c.1935 75 MAP FIVE: MAP OF KINIKINI, FROM THE CROIVNGRANT, 1871 76 MAP SIX: MAPOFKAIWAITAU, FROMTHECROIVNGRANT, 1872 77 APPENDIX TWO: MARIA BLOCK DEED 78 APPENDIX THREE: LOCKE TO MCLEAN LETTERS 1864 - 1865 81 BIBLIOGRAPHY 89 2 Introduction It was expected that the sale of this block would open the way for much larger purchases, as was afterwards the case. The Mahia may be considered as the key-stone of the district.! This report discusses the Crown purchase of the Mahia Block, signed on 20 October 1864. The Mahia Block was the first land purchased by the Crown in the Mahia Peninsula and Wairoa district. The Mahia Peninsula is a small isthmus of land on the eastern coast of New Zealand, between Hawke's Bay and Gisborne. Today it had two small settlements, Mahia and Mahia Beach. It is around 21 kilometres long, and 12 kilometres wide. It is joined to the mainland by a narrow neck of land, which also encompasses the Maungawhio Lagoon. At the bottom of the peninsula is Waikawa, or Portland Island. The land that was to become the Mahia Block is substantially bounded by water: all of the western and part of the eastern boundary is formed by the sea, and the northern boundary is mostly the edge of the Maungawhio Lagoon. The eastern boundary follows hills through the body of the peninsula, until it meets the Maungatea Stream. The southern boundary follows the stream to the sea. The western and southern boundary lines have been disputed several times in the twentieth century, as has the point at which the boundary hits the Maungatea Stream. These disputes will be discussed in detail in this report. The block was around 14,600 acres in size. Once the rest of the Mahia Peninsula had been divided up by the Native Land Court, the block was bounded by five blocks: Whangawehi, Tawapata North 1 and 2, Tawapata South, and, at the very top of the block, Kaiwaitau. Te Mahia was the sight of many important events in the history of Ngati Kahungunu. The first chapter of this report will discuss this history, and also the history of early European occupation of the Peninsula, mainly by whalers, traders and sheep-run holders, up until the sale of the block in 1864. The purchase of the Mahia Block was made in the midst of the New Zealand Wars and the growth of the King 'and Pai Marire movement in the region. The second chapter will discuss this background to the sale, and attempt to explain not only why the government bought the land, but also why Maori decided to sell at this time. It will then go on to discuss ! James Grindell, 'Visit of Mr McLean and Party To the North', 12 November 1864, Hawke's Bay Herald, p.2. Reproduced in Ballara and Scott document bank, Section 40. 3 the specific events that surrounded the negotiations, the investigation of owners, and other aspects of the purchase of the Mahia Block. It will then focus on the protests that emerged after the sale of the block, until the end of the nineteenth century, and the impact that the sale had on the Mahia Peninsula. The third chapter will discuss the twentieth century protests about the sale of the Mahia Block. On no less than twelve recorded occasions, whether in person or by petition, Maori have complained to the Crown about aspects of the purchase during this century. The two main themes of these complaints have been, firstly, that the people who sold the block had no right to sell it, or some part of it; or secondly, that the boundaries of the block have been incorrectly laid out, resulting in more land being taken than the Maori had intended to sell. This report will discuss these complaints, and the investigations made into them, in as much detail as possible. This chapter will conclude with a discussion of the fate of the reserves made from the Mahia Block. A note on references An important source of information has been Angela Ballara and Gary Scott's block history, 'Mahia', which is contained within their large report 'Crown Purchases of Maori Land in Early Provincial Hawke's Bay' written for the Wai 201 claimants to the Waitangi Tribunal. This has been referenced in the footnote of this report as 'Ballara and Scott, 'Mahia'.' Other block histories contained within the Ballara and Scott report, plus its introduction, have also been very important sources on information. Each of the block histories within the report has its own internal pagination. Their report also contains a huge document bank, and whenever possible I have referenced primary sources to that document bank, as well as giving the original source. I have referenced these as 'reproduced in Ballara and Scott document bank' and given the appropriate section numbers. Section 20 to 26 of the document bank directly concern the sale of the Mahia Block, but other sections have also been used. 2 l Angela Ballara and Gary Scott, 'Crown Purchases of Maori land in Early Provincial Hawke's Bay', and document bank, report commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal, Waitangi Tribunal Record of Documents, Wai 201, Document II, 1994 4 MAP ONE r------------------,~ ~ Te Ika AMaui North Island '" Rehulmokair08 TAWAPATA SOUTH o IOkm, o 6miles ~ Waikawa U(Portland Island) Mahia Peninsula: Crown Purchase and Native Land Court block divisions· The author My name is Elizabeth Cox. I graduated with a BA (Hons.) in History with first-class honours, and then a MA in History with distinction, from Victoria University of Wellington. I have had several contracts to work for The Dictionary 0/ New Zealand Biography, and also for Auckland University Press and Bridget Williams Book. I have worked as a Research Officer at the Waitangi Tribunal since July 1998. Abbreviations used AJHR Appendix to the Journals 0/ the House o/Representatives ATL Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington DNZB The Dictionary o/NewZealand Biography NA National Archives, Wellington 5 Chapter One The Mahia Peninsula before 1864 Maori occupation of the Peninsula The Mahia Peninsula has a long history of Maori occupation, and was, in particular, the location of many important events in the history of the Ngati Kahungunu people. This chapter will discuss the history of Maori occupation of the land that became the Mahia Block and Te Mahia as a whole, with an emphasis on the people who lived there during the nineteenth century. It will then discuss the arrival and settlement of Europeans in the region in the decades leading up to the sale of the block in 1864. The tapu canoe Takitimu is thought to have landed on the Mahia Peninsula on its journey down the East Coast after its arrival in New Zealand.' One explanation of the name Mahia is that the travellers considered it to be similar to a place in the Islands, Mahia-a-Tawhiti. The logs that were used to drag the Takitimu onto the shore still exist in the mouth of the stream next to Kaiuku marae. When Takitimu landed on the shores of Mahia the high priest of the canoe, Ruawharo, disembarked and made his home there. He built his first pa at present day Oraka, at the very top of the peninsula near the neck to the mainland, and his second on the other side of the peninsula facing Hawke's Bay: Both of these pa were within or very near to the land that was to become the Mahia Block. Ruawharo's second pa was called Tirotiro-kauika: watching the progress of the school of the whales. Many of the stories of Te Mahia invoke and explain the presence of the whales that travelled close to the shore of the peninsula, and sometimes beached themselves on it. Ruawharo is thought to have placed sand from the Pacific Islands on the beach at Mahia: this sand acted as a mauri of the whales and attracted them to the peninsula. In order to enlarge the ) J. H. Mitchell, Takitimu: a history of the Ngati Kahungunu people, [1944], n.p., 1972, p.43. The history of the Takitimu canoe and the Ngati Kahungunu people in this chapter is largely based on this and the various works of Angela Ballara including 'The Origins of Ngati Kahungunu', phD thesis, Victoria University 6f Wellington, 1991, and Ballara and Scott, 'Introduction' and 'Mahia', in their 'Crown purchases of Maori land in early provincial Hawke's Bay', Waitangi Tribunal Record of Documents, Wai 201, DocumentI1, 1994 , Mitchell, Takwmll, ppA3,60. 7 feeding grounds of the whales and fish, Ruawharo later planted his three sons at various places around Hawke's Bay, where they turned to stone.' In other stories the mauri of the whales takes the physical form of a whale-shaped rock.

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