Introduction: Chapter Summary

The issue resurfaced in the twentieth century as the Government again sought to strengthen the application of rating laws to Maori land. In the first quarter of the century, a series of Acts gradually brought Maori owned land on the same footing as that owned by Pakeha, and strengthened local body powers of recovery. The Hauraki people protested strongly when the Thames County Council took out charging orders against 65 blocks in the district in 1925. The Native Land Court rejected their argument that the Hauraki lands were exempt from rates under the 1877 compact, finding that this agreement had 'no legal force or effect'. Their protests continued, however, and in 1930 the Government reluctantly issued an Order in Council excepting 31 blocks from the Rating Act 1925. Neither local government nor Maori were satisfied. Maori saw the exemption of only those blocks adjoining the main county road as a narrow interpretation of the earlier accord which they thought pertained to the whole district while the Thames County Council resented the loss to their revenue. In 1962, despite the representations of Maori that the original agreement had been intended to provide a 'pattern of relationships for the future', the Government decided to terminate the Thames exemption, phasing it out over a five year period.

Rate arrears

Elsewhere in the Hauraki district, growing arrears in rates posed yet another threat to the capacity of Maori to hold onto their remaining properties. The Maori holdings at Thames, in particular, were squeezed between high valuations, low commercial returns, and problems in raising capital for improvements. In one case, as much as £3000 was owed, yet the properties concerned were known to be capable of producing very little rent at that time.

During the depression of the 1930s, the failure of Maori landowners to pay rates was blamed for much of the financial difficulty being experienced by the Thames Borough Council. The Borough Council, and after 1932 the Special Commissioner who had been appointed under legislation (the Thames Borough Commissioner Act) to take over its financial administration, actively pursued recovery from Maori. The Native Minister, whose consent was required for sale of land by means of a vesting order if owners were in default, was also more willing to contemplate such a step in the case of land at Thames than was generally the case, partly because the retention of such areas did not fit in with the standard model of the Maori landowner as a small farmer working papakainga holdings. As a consequence between 1934 and 1936 several blocks of town land, whose retention might have enabled local Maori to participate in the future commercial development of the town, were allowed instead, to transfer to local government at cheap depression prices properties valued at over £7,600, being vested in the Thames Borough Council in settlement of rates arrears of £3,400.

Chapter VI   Hauraki Iwi and the Gold Fields, 1890–1980

The sixth chapter discusses issues relating to mineral rights and revenues in the period covered by this report. Four major areas of concern are emphasised: the continuing