Wai 1040 #A1 1793-1853 By Dr Grant Phillipson An Exploratory Overview for the CFRT August 2005 Bay of Islands Maori and the Crown, 1793-1853 Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………1 Chapter 2: The Bay of Islands Claims…………………………………………………….5 Chapter 3: Contact and Culture Change, 1769-1869…………………………………….47 Chapter 4: Culture Change and Land: Pakeha sale or customary transaction?………….99 Chapter 5: The Relationship between Nga Puhi and the Crown, 1793-1839…………..206 Chapter 6: Te Tiriti o Waitangi………………………………………………………....263 Chapter 7: The Origins of the Northern War…………………………………………...305 Chapter 8: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..365 Select Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..376 Appendix of (mostly) key Maori-language documents cited in translation 1. Hone Wiremu Pokai to the Governor, 21 May 1845, G30/7 (with two alternative translations by Protectors Forsaith and Kemp) 2. Hone Heke to John Irving, 11 January 1849, IA 1, 1849/353 (in translation only) 3. Hone Wiremu Heke to Queen Victoria, 10 Hurae 1849, G30/6 4. Makaore Taonui & others to the Governor, Hokianga, 24 March 1856, Te Karere/Maori Messenger, vol 2, no 5, 31 May 1856 5. Makaore Taonui & others to the Governor, Hokianga, 24 March 1856, Te Karere/Maori Messenger, vol 2, no 5, 31 May 1856 – modern translation by Raniera Sonny Tau, November 2004 6. ‘Speeches of the Ngapuhi Chiefs to Governor Grey at the Meeting at Kororareka’; ‘Speeches of Maori Chiefs to Governor Grey at the Kerikeri’, Te Karere/Maori Messenger, vol 2, no 2, 15 January 1862 7. Unsigned letter (from Heke) to Governor, found in Heke’s pa at Ohaeawai, G30/7 (in translation only) 8. Hone Heke Pokai to Governor FitzRoy, nd (1844), G30/6 9. Hira Pure to Governor FitzRoy, nd (1844), G30/6 10. Tamati Waka Nene to Henry Williams, 12 October 1847, reproduced in H Carleton, The Life of Henry Williams, vol 2, pp 199-200 11. Hare Puataata to Bryce, 22 October 1883, MA 13/80 83/3400 12. Maihi Paraone Kawiti to the Governor, 9 April 1888, MA 13/80 88/694 (in translation only) 13. H Taiwhanga to Minister of Native Affairs, 12 July 1881, MA 13/80 81/2535 14. G Grey to Earl Grey, Auckland, 17 October 1848, G30/14 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS During the research for this report, I had able assistance from Ann McCarthy and Harriet Kennedy, Crown Forestry Rental Trust research assistants. I acknowledge their assistance with gratitude and respect. I also acknowledge the assistance of the CFRT Northland facilitators, Arthur Harawira, Lorraine Toki, Tania Smith, and Mihi Harris- Brown, in facilitating consultation with claimant representatives from the Te Waimate- Taiamai Alliance and Ngati Hine Alliance. Cluster coordinators John Alexander and Paeata Clark have also been of great help. I acknowledge the assistance and input of Ngati Hine and the Te Waimate-Taiamai Alliance. They have endorsed the report, with the proviso that it does not necessarily reflect their views, in particular on matters of traditional history. Philippa Wyatt reviewed the first draft and Vincent O’Malley the second; thanks are due to them for their insightful comments. Any errors in the report are, of course, my own responsibility. The maps were prepared by Noel Harris. The information for Fig 2 was supplied by DOSLI Auckland for the Rangahaua Whanui Project. iii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 The Author My name is Grant Phillipson. I have a Ph D (1992) in History from Otago University. I worked as an historical researcher for the Crown Congress Joint Working Party in 1993. In 1994 I became a Research Officer at the Waitangi Tribunal, working on the Rangahaua Whanui project, the Northern South Island claims, and the Chatham Islands claims. I have written research reports for these regions and presented evidence to the Waitangi Tribunal. In 1995 I became the Tribunal’s Research Manager, in charge of its research programme, staff, inquiry strategic planning, research quality assurance, and other responsibilities. In 1997, the title of this position was changed to that of Chief Historian, and it is my current position at the Tribunal. In the year 2000, I took leave to write the following report for the Crown Forestry Rental Trust, as an independent historian. Most of the research was conducted in 2000 and the first draft was completed in 2001. The draft was revised in 2004-05. During the research for this report, I had able assistance from Ann McCarthy and Harriet Kennedy, Crown Forestry Rental Trust research assistants. I acknowledge their assistance with gratitude and respect. 2 The Report The Crown Forestry Rental Trust commissioned me to write an exploratory overview report, outlining historical matters of relevance to Treaty claims in the Bay of Islands. The period covered by the report is from first contact with the British Crown in 1793, through to the end of Sir George Grey’s governship in 1853. It tells the story of the unique relationship developed between the Crown and Nga Puhi in that period. Responsible (settler) government and economic problems in the north caused a major revision of the relationship after 1853, which will be the subject of a separate report. This report is exploratory in nature, and designed to provide a narrative and analysis of key issues, rather than exhaustive detail. The focus of the Bay of Islands claims is outlined in chapter 2. Essentially, the claims raise the following key issues of relevance to the period 1840 to 1853: S The relationship between Bay of Islands Maori and the Crown; S The relationship between kawanatanga (the authority of the Crown) and tino rangatiratanga (the authority of Maori); S Maori authority over their lands, resources, people, and tribal entities, and their rights to self-regulation; S The alienation of land from Maori ownership and control, especially through the Crown’s adoption and enforcement of the Pakeha concept of the Old Land Claims as absolute sales, whereas the pre-1840 transactions were conditional and involved shared authority and use- rights over land; S Other grievances about the Old Land Claims, especially the Crown’s “confiscation” of the surplus land; and S The Crown’s decision to wage war against some Bay of Islands tribes in the 1840s, and the consequences of that decision for those tribes and the region. These themes and issues are explored in the remainder of the report. It is not possible to do so by starting the historical narrative and analysis at 1840. Treaty claims and the jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal are restricted to claims arising from matters that 1 took place after 6 February 1840. At the hui with Nga Puhi on 5 February in that year, Governor Hobson promised to investigate the pre-Treaty land transactions and issue grants for valid claims. Land claimed invalidly would revert to Maori ownership. Thus were created the Old Land Claims, one of the primary historical grievances of Bay of Islands Nga Puhi. The investigation of these claims, the issuing of Crown Grants to settlers, and the Crown’s assumption of the surplus land, were all matters which took place after 1840. They can only be understood and evaluated, however, in light of the period in which they actually took place – that is, prior to 1840. Secondly, the relationship between Nga Puhi and the Crown was not a new one when the Treaty was signed in February 1840. Instead, the Treaty was the culmination of twenty years of fluctuating alliance between the Crown and Nga Puhi. The deterioriation of their relationship in the early 1840s, to the point where they took up arms against each other in 1845, again can only be thoroughly understood by reference to what took place before 1840. It has been necessary, therefore, to concentrate a great deal on the period prior to 1840 in this report. One-quarter of Maori land in the Bay of Islands passed into settler or Crown ownership as a result of the Old Land Claims. This was the main form of land and resource loss in the period 1840 to 1853. The antecedents of that loss are explored in chapter 3, which examines the process of culture-change at the Bay of Islands. It explores the Crown argument (in related inquiries) that the Old Land Claims were valid and absolute alienations of land on the British model of land ‘sales’. The Crown claimed that Maori understood and adopted what Pakeha meant by sales. Nga Puhi were supposed to have adopted this foreign understanding as a result of social and cultural change at the Bay of Islands in the period 1769 (first contact) to 1839. The degree to which Maori society and culture experienced fundamental change is assessed in chapter 3. The narrative goes beyond the time frame of this report, in order to demonstrate that Maori law and customary institutions continued to operate in the Bay of Islands up to 1870 and beyond. Nga Puhi had not, in fact, adopted British understandings and law with regard to land transactions by 1840, although they were increasingly aware of them. The following chapter (4) deals with the Crown’s investigation of the Old Land Claims. In particular, I assess the degree to which the Crown was aware of Maori understandings of the transactions. Both Governor FitzRoy (1843-45) and Grey (1845-53) were aware that the Old Land Claims were not absolute alienations of land on the British model of a sale. The key period of 1843 to 1853 was one in which these Governors could have acted effectively on that knowledge to put the situation right. Instead, Governor FitzRoy issued Crown Grants to the pre-1840 settlers, on the basis that their understanding of the transactions should be given legal force.