Chapter I: Overview and Argument

Hauraki tribal territory is Maori land.

Volume 9 The Hauraki Tribal Lands Supporting Papers, Parts .1–28 contains over 14,000 pages of letters, deeds, plans, Maori Land Court minute book records and much more to support the analysis of David Alexander's report.

Volume 10 The Social and Economic Situation of Hauraki Maori After Colonisation provides a careful analysis of the plight of Hauraki Maori describing the inequitable provision of health and education, combined with almost complete landlessness, leading to the persistent deprivation and poverty faced by Maori.

Volume II The Economic Impoverishment of Hauraki Maori Through Colonisation .1830–1930 examines the destruction of the pre-European economy by colonial economic processes, aided and abetted by Government officials, creating a situation whereby Maori became paupers in their own land. The resulting economic distress and deprivation has lasted for generations.

Land Alienation

Of the original tribal estate there is about 2.6% or 38,500 acres remaining in Maori ownership. This is managed by small to medium-sized Trusts although there are four entities which own and manage large land holdings on behalf of their beneficial shareholders. These are at Kennedy Bay, Manaia, Pakirarahi and Mataroa near Waihi. Maori-owned land in 1997 is shown in map 9.

In a 1997 report by the Waitangi Tribunal it was found that in comparison with other areas in the North Island, on a per capita basis, Hauraki Maori were the most land-short, followed by those in Taranaki, Waikato, then Auckland.4 The pattern of land alienation from 1865 to 1997 is shown in maps 2 to 9. During this period about 80% of the land alienated was acquired by the Crown and 20% acquired through private land purchases.

The time sequence depicted by these maps has been made possible by the analysis of over 700 parcels of land which forms Volume 8. About 7% of the tribal territory was not covered by the research. At this stage what happened to this proportion of the land cannot be shown with a high degree of confidence. However, much of it along the banks of the Waihou River was acquired by private individuals early in the nineteenth century.

Some of the tribal territory was affected by outright confiscation by the Crown stemming from the land wars in the 1860s. In the debates at the time, the Government officials had intended to take the whole of the Thames and Piako districts. In the event, about 205,000 acres or 14% of the tribal territory was subject to confiscation by the Crown. This is shown in map 10.

4 A. Ward, 'National Overview', vol I, Waitangi Tribunal Rangahaua Whanui Series, Wellington, 1997, p. II.

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