Ngati Rangitihi Story Chapter 3 D R A F T October 2016 Chapter 3: Ngati Rangitihi Lands After 1840 ....................................................................... 1 3.1 The Ngati Rangitihi Rohe Potae .............................................................................. 1 3.2 The Te Ariki Fighting, 1853–1854 .......................................................................... 4 3.3 The Confiscation of Ngati Rangitihi Lands, 1866 ................................................. 11 3.3.1 Confiscated Lands Returned to Ngati Rangitihi, 1866–1872 .......................... 16 3.3.2 Ngati Rangitihi Grants for Military Service .................................................... 20 3.3.3 Crown Purchase of Pukeroa ............................................................................ 21 3.3.4 Other Ngati Rangitihi Titles in the Confiscation District ................................ 26 3.4 Ngati Rangitihi Inland Blocks ................................................................................ 28 3.4.1 Haehaenga ....................................................................................................... 30 3.4.2 Kaingaroa 1 ..................................................................................................... 40 3.4.2.1 Early Private Leasing of Kaingaroa ......................................................... 41 3.4.2.2 Crown Leasing of Kaingaroa ................................................................... 45 3.4.2.3 Title Investigation, 1878-1879 ................................................................. 50 3.4.2.4 Rehearing, 1878-1880 .............................................................................. 52 3.4.2.5 Purchase, 1880-1881 ................................................................................ 54 3.4.2.6 Protest, 1880-1881 ................................................................................... 56 3.4.3 Kaingaroa 1A .................................................................................................. 59 3.4.4 Putauaki ........................................................................................................... 61 3.4.5 Pokohu ............................................................................................................ 65 3.4.5.1 Pre-Title Crown Dealings, 1881............................................................... 65 3.4.5.2 Title Investigation, 1881 .......................................................................... 67 3.4.5.3 Protest and Rehearing, 1881-1884 ........................................................... 69 3.4.5.4 Crown Purchase and Later Protest, 1881-1885 ........................................ 74 3.4.6 Matahina .......................................................................................................... 76 3.4.6.1 Title Investigation, 1881 .......................................................................... 76 3.4.6.2 Protest and Rehearing, 1881-1884 ........................................................... 79 3.4.6.3 Survey Lien .............................................................................................. 80 3.4.7 Rerewhakaitu................................................................................................... 81 3.4.7.1 Pre-Title Crown Dealings ........................................................................ 82 3.4.7.2 Crown Purchases, 1881 to 1895 ............................................................... 83 3.4.8 Paeroa East ...................................................................................................... 85 3.4.8.1 Pre-Title Crown Dealings, 1873-1881 ..................................................... 85 3.4.8.2 Title Investigation, 1881 .......................................................................... 87 3.4.8.3 Rehearing, 1882 ....................................................................................... 90 3.4.8.4 Subdivision and Alienation, 1883 ............................................................ 93 3.4.8.5 Protest and Inquiry, 1884 ......................................................................... 95 3.4.8.6 The Tarawera Eruption and Paeroa Purchasing, 1886-1887 .................... 96 3.4.8.7 Protests, 1888-1889 ................................................................................ 103 3.4.8.8 Petroleum and Further Crown Purchasing, 1889-1895 .......................... 107 3.4.8.9 The Taking of the Last of Paeroa East, 1911 ......................................... 109 3.4.9 Rotomahana-Parekarangi .............................................................................. 110 3.4.9.1 Pre-Title Crown Dealings, 1873-1881 ................................................... 110 3.4.9.2 Title Investigation, 1882 ........................................................................ 111 3.4.9.3 Rehearing, 1887 ..................................................................................... 113 3.4.10 Ruawahia ..................................................................................................... 115 3.4.10.1 Crown Purchasing, 1890-1907 ........................................................... 116 Chapter 3: Ngati Rangitihi Lands After 1840 3.1 The Ngati Rangitihi Rohe Potae The extent of the customary lands of Ngati Rangitihi are rarely set out in full in the historical record. This is largely the result of the iwi in the past setting out their interests not in a comprehensive way but only in written responses to Crown dealings with particular lands. As a result, the boundaries they referred to in writing, or in the Native Land Court, were those relevant to the particular lands at issue – not their entire rohe. For instance, in 1873 Huta Tangihia of Ngati Rangitihi wrote to Native Minister McLean to set out Ngati Rangitihi boundaries in relation to land dealings Ngati Awa vendors proposed to enter into with the Crown. Huta Tangihia referred only to his iwi’s boundaries in and around Haehaenga and across lake Tarawera, not to their wider rohe.1 In the same year, several Ngati Rangitihi rangatira joined their whanaunga Wi Kepa Te Rangipuawhe and a group of Tuhourangi rangatira – writing jointly as Ngati Hinemihi – reacted to Crown dealings with other iwi for lands in the Tarawera district by defining their lands around the lake and to the south (towards the Kaingaroa plains).2 As an aside, it should be noted this was only 20 years after Tuhourangi and Ngati Rangitihi (each with allies from various other iwi) had fought prolonged and lethal battles over some of the very same land for control of the tourism trade at Te Ariki. Having made their peace, they combined in 1873 to face the incursions of the Crown. Ngati Rangitihi’s failure to clearly set out their tribal boundaries in written records has meant that the nature and extent of their interests has been either neglected or misunderstood in the existing research. Added to which most of this research is of an overview nature and not at all specific to Ngati Rangitihi. A stark and instructive example is Angela Ballara’s querying of Ngati Rangitihi’s customary interests at Matata by reference to a boundary description given by Ngati Rangitihi in the Native Land Court; boundaries that she pointedly notes do not extend anywhere near Matata.3 The boundaries she refers to are not those of the iwi’s rohe but merely those of the blocks then at issue in the Native Land Court; being the overlapping 1 Huta Tangihia to Donald McLean, 2 October 1873. MA-MLP 1 1874/31. Archives NZ. 2 MA-MLP 1/1873/131. Archives NZ. Among those who put their name to the letter are Arama Karaka Mokonuiarangi, Poia Ririapu, Niheta Kaipara, and Huta Tangihia. 3 Ballara (2004), p.86. 1 Pokohu and Putauaki blocks (as is readily apparent from an examination of the survey plans for those blocks). Another issue for the written descriptions of Ngati Rangitihi’s boundaries is they all post-date the confiscation of their interests in the Matata district and up the Tarawera river towards Putauaki. By the 1870s – when Crown land dealings and Native Land Court claims prompted Ngati Rangitihi to define their interests – the Bay of Plenty confiscation rendered it pointless to refer to the land there. The result is that in the clearest description of their boundaries – that given by Ngati Rangitihi in 1875 – they ignore the confiscation district and focus on the area inland of Putauaki, west to Tarawera, and south across the Kaingaroa plains. In April 1875 Arama Karaka Mokonuiarangi and the “Committee of Ngatirangitihi” informed Native Minister Donald McLean of the “outer boundaries of the land claimed by Ngati Rangitihi.” The tribe had made this description available to Crown land purchase agents Mitchell and Davis in 1874 in an effort to ensure that Ngati Rangitihi interests were recognised by them. The boundary laid out by Arama Karaka and the Ngati Rangitihi Committee commenced: at the Kainga Kakahi Te Whakakauri, Te Tamoe Pokangawhea, Ngahewa, Wai o tapu, then to Tore Tore Patutahi, Ngarangi Awatea thence along the stream of Rangitaiki, to Paru Tipapa, Te Kaipohatu [i.e., Raepohatu] Kahati Te Korokoro o Rangiataua, Te Ranga o Maaka Te Iwi Tuaroa o Maruhikuao striking the waters of Tarawera turning thence to Otuhanga o Marama te Tuahu Matuku Motumoki [or Motumako] Kakea wai Pupumahana, Takitaki otu Opari Otangimoana Te Akeake Otumutu then along the waters of Tarawera lake across to the beginning of the line at Kainga Kakahi. There are many names we have left out in describing