THE CROWN, THE TREATY, AND THE HAURAKI TRIBES, 1800-1885

shooting, and told that 'the road would have to be made whether he agreed to it or not.' Although Government officials acknowledged that Tukukino had cause for complaint in the decision of the Native Land Court which had reduced his power to individual possession of an one-eighth share of one of the two blocks into which tribal land at Komata had been divided, they saw the blame as attaching to his fellow grantees rather than to the title system which had been created, and utterly rejected his capacity to retain the whole of the area for the future of his people. The Government represented itself as demonstrating considerable forbearance in the question of the road, but ultimately used the threat of force to make sure that it went through.

Hopes that the freehold at Ohinemuri (estimated at 132,000 acres) could be retained, and even that the outstanding debt could be repaid and the lands brought out from under the Government's jurisdiction proved transitory. The Government had no intention of allowing Maori to regain control of sub-surface properties or retain freehold rights in Ohinemuri, and clearly considered the cession to be a temporary measure, taken only for the sake of convenience. Within two years, Mackay had resumed purchase of freehold interests in the block, making further 'final payments' to individuals who were likely to be admitted into the title once the Government managed to bring the land through the court.

Although there had been considerable ambiguity in much of its dealing over Ohinemuri, the Government insisted that payments made prior to 1875 be treated as concerning the freehold and not just the sub-surface resources. Questions about the rights of non-debtors to revenues after the cession of Ohinemuri were swept aside; all those monies went against the total amount paid out on the land before the field was opened. Only limited revenues were generated by the Ohinemuri field in the first years of its operation, this fact being largely attributed to the reluctance of mining companies to invest in the land until the Government had acquired complete control of the title. Before right-holders had a chance to pay off their debt, the Government had acquired the final signatures of a majority of right-holders and succeeded in having a large portion of the block brought through the court. It was found, then, that Mackay's payments had little relation to the actual extent of individual interests. Nonetheless the sale went through. Payments were adjusted, the block partitioned, reserves for the vendors bargained down since the whole of the Ohinemuri gold field had not been brought through, and the bulk of the land awarded to the Crown. Rather than being given a real opportunity to pay off the tribal debt, the interests of non-vendors were excised, the lines being drawn to exclude, as far as possible, existing mining claims. Although this decision probably derived from a concern about security of title, this had the effect of depriving Maori of those very lands which were producing income. The lands retained by non-signatories remained subject, however, to the terms of the 1875 mining cession. The nett effect of the Government's dealings at Ohinemuri was to fragment the Hauraki tribes, and to deprive Maori of any chance to participate in the subsequent development of what was shortly to become a valuable gold field which was to greatly boost New Zealand's economy in the late nineteenth century.

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