Maori soon made regular use of these services, earning income from working on the telegraph and supplying timber for poles. They planted potatoes in the land cleared for the line, and their produce again reached the Auckland market.⁶⁰ The question remained, however, whether, as Te Hira had feared, this involvement would draw them inexorably into sale of land.

10.1.6 The advent of the Native Land Court

The Native Land Court will be discussed substantially in chapters 15 to 18, but in this context we note that, in contrast to the telegraph line, in Ohinemuri the court was relatively welcome. Part of the motivation was that private interests were active in pursuing purchases, leases or timber rights agreements, offering prices attractive to Maori as gold revenues declined. Private purchases occurred on the Waihou and behind Shortland in the late 1860s. Some Ohinemuri right-owners also began surveying in 1869, apparently with a view to private leasing. An attempt by private interests to survey a township at Paeroa was, however, blocked by Te Hira and Mere Kuru. Because of the intersecting rights of various tribes in Ohinemuri, and because non-Marutuahu groups such as Ngati Koi (or Ngati Tara) were pressing their claims to the land, it began to seem useful to groups opposed to mining to have their rights clarified by the court.

For their part, Government officials encouraged the court’s adjudication of rights in Ohinemuri to break the impasse over gold mining. By 1870, those who had surveyed were ready to make application for a hearing. The court heard the Ohinemuri block in Auckland on 5 May 1870, having postponed it earlier because not all parties were ready to participate. At the hearing, the lawyer John Sheehan, under instruction from Te Hira, moved that the court adjourn to Ohinemuri. Despite pessimistic expectations of Te Hira’s and Mere Kuru’s support, on 17 May 1870 the court sat in Te Hira’s meeting house with him and Mere Kuru in attendance. Mackay represented Te Hira, Te Moananui and all the Ngati Tamatera and Ngati Paoa respondents to the Ngati Koi applicants.⁶¹

An important element of the complex debates concerning the application was Ngati Tamatera fury that, first in the Owharoa block, then in Waihi (Ohinemuri), Ngati Koi (Ngati Tara), whom they considered rahi to them, should claim the land. Even before the court gave its decision on Owharoa, Te Moananui had taken a taua to Waihi to muru the Ngati Koi settlement. The court awarded Owharoa to Ngati Koi and then had to adjourn hastily for fear of violence from Ngati Tamatera. When it resumed in Shortland in October, Te Hira and his group were awarded Waihi, but afterwards verbally recognised some Ngati Koi

60. Ibid

61. Ibid, pp 197–201