All but a remnant of their lands had passed into Pakeha hands, public or private. The traditional Maori economy was virtually destroyed, and as a substantially landless people, Hauraki tribes had been imperfectly and disadvantageously absorbed in a dominant Pakeha economy. They had become, in modern parlance, marginalized.

Scope of this Report

The following version of what took place will attempt to:

•     indicate the nature of the economic transformation in this period, and for 30 years beyond;

•     explain (where possible) when changes took place, and why they took the form they did;

•     discuss the decisive role of the Crown in the process, sometimes facilitating, at other times supervising, arbitrating, and even on important occasions actively participating by doing things like buying land;

•     measure the social consequences upon Hauraki Maori of these often deepseated economic changes; and

•     try to determine who were, relatively, the winners and losers in the transformed situation, and what part Crown acts of commission and omission played in that outcome.

4   New Zealand Official Year Book, Wellington, 1901, pp. 363-66.

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