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

were expected to prove their worth when it came to furthering survey and acceptance of land court adjudication which was being resisted by sections of the Hauraki iwi with rights in the floodplain, including by some who had long been identified as 'friends' of the Government. At the same time, the grip of the 'law' tightened as a firm line was taken with recalcitrant Maori at Komata and Pukehange, and the control of settler and European Government consolidated.

Under the administrations of Bryce, Rolleston, and Ballance restrictions on the alienation of reserved lands were generally kept in place at Hauraki, reflecting both a general predisposition on the part of these Ministers (1879–1887), and early warnings from officers in the field that the 'improvidence' of Maori at Te Aroha, and elsewhere in the district, was likely to prove a problem for the Government if these lands went too. Those scruples applied, however, only to lands which had been specifically reserved for vendors by deed and court, not to lands reserved by Maori themselves from these large-scale transfers of the tribal estate. Thus, a number of the Ohinemuri A subdivisions were purchased by the Crown soon after the bulk had been awarded to it in 1882. The Government saw the subsequent purchase of Ohinemuri lands as a completion of earlier dealings, and its haggling over price was, thus, justified because the owners were simply seen to have held onto those lands in order to get a better rate per acre. Numbers 3A, 5A, 8A, 9A, 11A, 14A, 15A, 18A, and Owharoa 3A (1, 203 acres) had all gone by 1886, generally at 6/- per acre.25 Then, in the following year, the Crown applied to have its interests defined in the A subdivisons in which it had not been able to purchase all shares. This totalled 4,623 acres in 2A1, 4A1, 7A1, 13A1, 16A1, 17A1, 19A1, and Owharoa 2A1. Reserves were not considered to be required to be set aside for the new vendors. Maori asked what their entitlement would be, but the Native Land Purchase Department instructed its officer, in August 1882:

In purchasing the interests of unsold grantees cut out from the Ohinemuri Blocks by the Native Land Court last month, you will please explain that no further reserves will be made. The price per acre you are authorised to pay for the land is six shillings, the extra shilling is an equivalent to the reserves set apart for those who sold prior to Court making the orders.26

The logic of this instruction is doubtful, however, since some of the original sellers had been estimated to be in receipt of monies well in excess of their shares while the non-sellers had been excluded absolutely from the reserves for vendors and were now left with few interests in the district.

After the first hearings, the Crown had gained complete ownership of some 60,000 acres of the Ohinemuri gold field.27 A continuation of Government purchase left Maori, in 1887, with 26,233 acres out of the 32,059 acres that had remained to them after the original award, either as reserves and excised interests, or as lands held back, most of which had

25 Block 14A was sold for 8/-, 15A for 10/- and Owharoa 3A for 20/- per acre. See D. Alexander, The Hauraki
Tribal Lands, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, Paeroa, 1997, Ohinemuri 14 & 15 in Part 3, pp. 86–87, 146.

26 Under Secretary Native Land Purchase Department to Wilkinson, 7 August 1882. MA MLP 1889/268. Cited in Alexander, The Hauraki Tribal Lands, Part 3, p. 55.

27 This figure includes 706 acres of land that was mistakenly treated as belonging to the Crown, but excludes the Crown-granted reserves for the vendors (6,644 acres).

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