THE CROWN, THE TREATY, AND THE HAURAKI TRIBES, 1880–1980

paid little attention to either its criticisms of the Native Land Court, or, to the reluctance to open Piako to the court's jurisdiction and the competing survey of boundaries.

Crown purchasing, 1880–1890

Crown purchasing activity slowed in the 1880s largely because of lack of funds and retrenchment (see pp. 27–54). The first goal of a reduced Native Department and its field officers was to bring outstanding negotiations at Ohinemuri and Piako to completion and offers of sale of new areas were treated with far more caution than had been the case in the 1870s. The first part of this report showed how the Government succeeded in bringing over 66,000 acres of the freehold at Ohinemuri through the court and all but 10% of that area transferred completely into its hands in 1882. The Government was, however, dissatisfied with that result, and in effect, considered the purchase to be incomplete. Ohinemuri lands continued to slowly transfer out of Maori hands. The reserves for the original vendors were left alone for the meantime, but the Ohinemuri A blocks awarded to non-vendors remained a target for Crown purchase activity throughout the 1880s. By 1887 another 5,826 acres had been acquired by the Crown with no further provision of reserves, leaving Maori with only a little over 20,000 acres out of the whole original Ohinemuri gold field area. The pace of loss gathered in the 1890s when, as the second chapter shows, Government policy emphasised the importance of opening land for close settlement. Almost all the remaining Ohinemuri lands were acquired by the Crown over the next ten years as, on the one hand, Maori had been left in debt by the lengthy Native Land Court hearings for the block, and on the other, the Government became more willing to acquire reserves despite a rhetoric of leaving Maori with a self-sufficiency in land.

Although the Native Land Purchase Department was more chary of offers, or claims of mineral wealth, it was generally willing to initiate the purchase of blocks of proven value to ensure absolute government control of sub-surface resources and European control of related development, responding positively to the requests of local politicians, local bodies, and Pakeha residents for active pursuit of acquisition. Often, however, the transfer of lands resulting from such initiatives was piecemeal, and negotiations to finalise transactions or to acquire further lands out of parent blocks extended into the 1890s. This process was exemplified throughout the last two decades of the nineteenth century by the case of Te Aroha hot springs and township where Maori interests were gradually sacrificed to the perceived requirements of development (see pp. 31–34).

At first, Government officials and ministers were conscious that Maori in the Te Aroha district had little land left and generally refused to countenance the lifting of prohibition against further sale of the reserves there. From very early on, however, exceptions were made to that policy as restrictions against sale were lifted to allow the gifts of sites for churches and public buildings, and as the Government sought to acquire lands surrounding the hot springs domain which had already been 'gifted' by Maori right-holders at the time of negotiations for the parent block. Despite the contributions which they had already made to the development of the colonial economy and local infrastructure, it was still expected that Maori should only receive a small price for any land

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