This block was also known as Waikawau Block. It was awarded to Ngati Whanaunga, specifically to members of Te Mateawa and Ngatiramuri hapu. 32 names were placed on the Memorial of Ownership.
Timber Lease
The Kauri Timber Company obtained a lease or some form of agreement to cut and remove timber from Moehau 1. This lease was not registered, and its details are not therefore known, though a mortgage of it by the Kauri Timber Company to the Trustees Executors and Agency Company Ltd was registered in 1889.
Private Purchase of Interests in Moehau
By a transfer dated April 1885, 14 owners of Moehau I sold their interests in the block to the Auckland Timber Company.
In May 1890 Alfred Preece offered the interests of "one or more owners" in Moehau 1 for sale to the Crown at 425 per share.1 The reaction was that the private dealings complicated the title, and there was little justification in the Crown purchasing interests.2
Partitions
Moehau I was partitioned in two, Moehau 1 East (2250 acres) and 1 West (2730 acres), in April 1898, to enable sale of part (Moehau I West) of the block (see below).3 There were 13 owners who had not sold their interests, and were therefore placed in Moehau 1 East.4
Subsequent partitions of Moehau 1 East were:
13 September 1907 into r East I, I57a 3r, Te Kahatuwai Kiwi solelyEast 25
9 May 1913 into 1 East 2A, 1161a 3r 2.4p East 213, 98oa 1r zop East 2c (urupa),1 acre6
1 Alfred Preece Coromandel to Resident Magistrate Coromandel, 9 May 189o. Maori Affairs Head Office file MLP 1899/48. Supporting Papers #13128.32-33.
2 Accountant Native Department to Resident Magistrate Thames, 3o October 189o, on cover sheet to file NLP 189o/355. Maori Affairs Head Office file MLP 1899/48. Supporting Papers #B128.34-35.
3 Hauraki Minute Book 47 page rm.
4 Hauraki Minute Book 47 pages 122-123. Supporting Papers #354.14-15.
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