THE CROWN, THE TREATY, AND THE HAURAKI TRIBES, 1800–1885
importance transferred automatically into the exclusive hands of British officials. When, for example, the death of a young girl was reported on Waiheke, local chiefs investigated the case themselves, informing the Chief Police Magistrate that they were 'perfectly satisfied from competent witnesses that it was purely accidental.'53 There was little here to suggest that Hauraki Maori accepted English control of the law and its meanings, whether it was in defining criminal acts, or the principles of land transaction, or in the application of common law prerogatives over foreshore and precious minerals.
Purchase of Hauraki Lands, 1840 –1850
(a) Early Crown purchases
If the uncertain state of tribal interest in the isthmus lands predisposed Maori to participate in land transactions, that engagement was fuelled further by the establishment of the capital at Auckland in 1840. Over the next few years the Crown acquired several important blocks for the extension of settlement, generally from a limited number of chiefs for trade goods which but poorly reflected the potential value of the land and with no provision of reserves for vendors. The Hauraki tribes were involved in a number of these transactions, with Ngati Paoa chiefs based at Waiheke, Whakatiwai, and Taupo (Orere Point) being the major but by no means only participants. In April 1841
Marutuahu led by Ngati Paoa asserted the pre-eminence of their rights over Mahurangi from Waiwera to Kaipana portage, where they had traditionally fished the bays and rivers, by signing a deed purporting to hand over 30,000 acres to the Crown for £200, 400 blankets, and other goods. Hoete received four cows for assisting the Government's 'traffic with the Natives' while Ngati Whatua was also given a small payment the following month. This transaction clearly fell well short of the complete conveyance intended by the Government which had to consolidate its acquisition in the early 1850s by giving Haimona and chiefs, described as Ngati Paoa, including Taraia, further payment for 'the final and unreserved giving up of the land previously purchased'.54
In 1841 the Government also acquired the extremely valuable 6,000 acre Kohimaramara block from 24 Ngati Paoa chiefs, for £l00 in cash, two horses, a boat and sails, 200 blankets, and assorted goods. Again, it seems likely that the conveyance of this block signalled Ngati Paoa's concern to demonstrate the continuation of their authority over this area from which they had withdrawn during the Ngapuhi incursions, and to establish good relationships with the new source of power based at Auckland. The block comprised the western shore of the Tamaki to present-day Mission Bay, inland to Waiatarua, and south to the boundary of Hamlin's purchase at Panmure Basin. The area included the lands on which the tribe had traditionally resided before the upheavals of the 1820s and early 1830s, Tauoma' (gifted by Te Tahuri to the wife of a Ngati Paoa man
53 See J. Nagel (R.M.) report, January 1845. 1A 11845/18.
54 Turton, Maori Deeds, no. 192 & 193, pp. 251–253; no. 198 & 199, pp. 256–257. Doc. 53, pp. 1238–1240,1241–1242.
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