\Official\ Wai 1200, A36 - }(1'-;.;;)

$\Official\ Wai 1200, A36 - }(1'-;.;;)$ - \OfFICIAl\ Wai 1200, A36 - }(1'-;.;;) THE PURCHASE OF THE PATETERE BLOCK 1B73-1BB1: AN EHPlORATORY REPORT R Report to the Waitangi Tribunal on behalf of Ngati Mahana (WAI 255) BRYAN 0.61 L 1I N 6 NOUEMBER 1992 ii ii cc~ CONTENTS Introductrim' ,; j Chronological Outline 2 1. The Original Negotiations for Purchase - 1873-74 4 Summary 11 2. Stalemate - 1873-78 12 Summary 18· 3. The Debate over Private Speculation - 1879-80 20 Summary. 42 4.' The Debate over Government Involvement - 1880-81 44 Summary 67 5. The Parliamentary Debate - 1880-81 69 Summary 78 '"., . 6. Th~: Mangakaretu Block 79 Summary." ,. 88 ConcIusion90 Squrces ' 94 , . ; ". Appendix:' The· Mangakaretti. grantees (MLc minutebook 5 W, 164-165) 96 . ': . , The Purchase of the Patetere Block 1873=1881: An Exploratory Report for the Waitangi Tribunal (WAI 255) INTRODUCTION My full name is Bryan Dudley Gilling. I reside in Wellington and am a Post doctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law at Victoria University, Wellington. My present field of study is the history of the operation of the Maori Land Court, especially in the nineteenth century. I hold an M.A. in History from the University of Canterbury, a B.Th. in Church History from the Australian College of Theology, and a D.Phil. in New Zealand History from the University of Waikato. This report is an initial exploration into the sale in the early 1880s of the Patetere Block in the south Waikato-Thames Valley region. The claim WAI 255 from which it derives is in fact specifically about Putaruru Domain, which was in the Mangakaretu Block. But, as will be seen during the course of this report, the Mangakaretu Block was oniy one of eleven smaller blocks dealt with more or less together as 'Patetere'. Apart from some early private negotiations, the whole region of up to 300,000 acres was regarded by the Government as a unit, until it finally passed through the Native Land Court in the smaller segments because so many disparate elements laid claim to ownership of those segments. Mangakaretu, then, cannot really be seen in isolation at this stage of investigation into the claim. I have included a summary of its actual passage through the Court in 1880, but have little further detail of its subsequent history after sale to European land speculators. In any case, the issues raised by the Patetere Block's general history are of interest and relevance as background common to the specific subdivisions. This report goes into some detail about the earlier transactions and especially the negotiations surrounding the 1880-81 passage through the Native Land Court leading to sale to private purchasers. This is done for two reasons. The first and more mundane is that those matters are what the readily accessible source material covers. The second is that given that the land seems to have been sold in its entirety, to establish any claim under the Treaty would appear to necessitate alleging negligence or prejudicial action by the Crown in the period leading up to that sale. This report thus covers precisely that period and attempts not only to -~ ., '<:c..I provide information about events, but to identify some of the issues which those events raise. -3- ..J Chronological Outline The chronological outline of events, then, runs briefly as follows: 1870-3 Private negotiations begin for lands in the Patetere region, conducted mainly by an Auckland business. syndicate led by Edwin Torrens Brissenden. 1873 A European is killed near Cambridge and to prevent further inter- racial strife the Government stops Brissenden's negotiations. 1874 Brissenden's group are compensated £3,600 for their expenditure on Patetere and the Government takes over the leases they had organised.. In September a Proclamation under the Immigration and Public Works Act 1874 prevents private parties from attempting to purchase land in the proclalmed area so long as the Government holds a lease. 1874-78 tittle is done by the Government due to political sensitivity in the Waikato. Another speculative syndicate begins its own (illegal) negotiations. To head them off, in April 1878 the Government issues another Proclamation, this time under the Government Native Lands Purchase Act 1877, which forbids others from acquiring any interest in land upon which the Government has advanced money. 1879 Native Minister John Sheehan confronts the speculators directly, but by the end of the year the Grey ministry has been ousted and the new minister, John Bryce, is prepared to come to some accommodation with the Patetere Land Asssociation. 1880 Most of Patetere passes the Native Land Court despite the Proclamation in the form of eleven subdivisions upon which ownership is determined. Negotiations continue between the Government and both the Association (now represented by Sheehan) and Maori owners. 1881 Patetere again goes before the Native Land Court to determine the extent of the Government's interest, which is subdivided out (the Huihuitaha and Pokaiwhenua Blocks and a large segment of Te Tokoroa). The restrictive ProclalJlation is then lifted and the remainder of the Blocks, including Mangakaretu, are sold to members of the Association over the next two years. ...., PART 1 THE ORIGINAL NEGOTIATIONS FOR PURCHASE -1873-74 The Patetere district had been originally occupied by the Kahupungapunga, settlers from times before the main Maori occupation of Aotearoa.1 In the seventeenth century, they were.either driven out or wiped out by Ngati Raukawa, expanding east from the Tainui heartland around Kawhia, the conflict being sparked by Ngati Raukawa seeking revenge for the murder of a high-ranking woman who had married into Kahupungapunga. In the 1820s many Ngati Raukawa migrated south to the Kapiti region to seek their relative Te Raupariha's protection in the musket wars, but many others still remained in the Patetere area. The first documented Pakeha venture into this area was by a party led by Bishop Selwyn who stopped at Tapapa in 1843. In 1868 Mr William Buckland began negotiations to buy the Paparamu Block at Tirau. It passed the Cambridge Native Land Court in 1870 and by 1878, with the accretion of other neighbouring blocks, the Okoroire Estate (Tirau Block) was being managed by Captain Owen for the Auckland Agricultural Company. Portions of the lands in the Patetere Block were originally negotiated for in the early 1870s by speculator Edwin Torrens Brissenden on behalf of himself and others, intending to lease them as until the lands had passed through the Native Land Court, they could not be purchased.2 This syndicate - the first to attempt to acquire Patetere - seems to have been variously known as the Waikato Land Company or Association, or the Ngati Raukawa Land Purchase Assocation. Some of the records of the original syndicate of purchasers are held in National Archives file MA 13/63a, presumably having been deposited as supporting. evidence for their subsequent claim against the Government for compensation. Examples from these records reveal the names of some of the Maori 1 Account from anonymous typeScript, 'History of Ngati Raukawa in South Waikato/Matamata Plains', ch.1 Tangata Whenua 16()()'19()(). This account says little about the Mangakaretu and Whakaaratarnaiti areas as such and nothing at all about the European purchase of those blocks. 2 According to one account, the earliest Pakeha settler in the region may have been one Mr Rid who 'took up' a block of country stretching from Okoroire to the Waikato River at Ongaroto in 1860, this block becoming known as the Thames Valley Estate. After thirty years [i.e. in 1890] he became bankrupt and the BN.z. subsequently sold blocks of the estate to two former employees, W.G. Alexander of Wiltsdown and Mr Pepperell of Uchfield. C.W Vennell et al, Centennial History of the Matamata Plains ([Matamata]: Matamata County Council, 1951), 252. But if this so, it leaves unanswered many questions, such as how did he stay there during the Wars? what is the point of the intervening survey and sale negotiations and problems - none of which mention him? from whom did he acqUire the land and as a lease or by purchase? I have found no other reference to this person. -5- J owners who were interested in land sales and some of the forms these advances took. At Ngaruawahia on 13 March 1873 Kereama, Tuhakaraima and Erueti Hororiri received £5 each from Edwin Torrens Brissenden as a deposit on Ngakuriaruru. At Cambrudge on 9 May 1873, he paid Hoera £5 towards Maungapouri, on 10 May £10 to Hoani Makaho towards Te Waotu, on 12 May £14 to Te Rawaraki for an unspecified purchase.3 At Cambridge on 28 March 1873, William Moon paid £5 to Te Kereteha towards the Waipa block, on 1 April 1873, Moon paid Hoani Makaho £10 as an advance on the Waotu Block, on 27 April £4 to Rei Paehua and Te Rawariki for Pukemuka, on 10 May £5 lOs to Ngihena against Te Awaroa, and on 18 June £9 to Hitiri Pairata for land between Whakamaru and Te Waotu.4 Some of these payments are tagged as 'advance of rent' rather than an actual payment against a block's purchase, confirming that an prior lease relationship had already been set up. Other payments were made for goods and services, but would be charged against the lands. On 17 April 1873, Hui received £1 from Moon for horse; hire. On 16 June 1873, Kahu was paid £8 from Moon for rum supplied during a meeting of Ngati Raukawa and £2 7s for use of a house. On 28 June 1873, Tirirangi received £4 lOs for more rum supplied during another Ngati Raukawa meeting 'called on behalf of Association'.

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