proclaimed goldfield) covered 132,175 acres, an area that included the land of right-owners who had not received advances or been party to the 1875 lease agreement. Members of Ngati Hako and Whakatohea (led by Epiha Taha) petitioned the Native Affairs Committee in 1875, and again in 1876 (under Aperahama Tupu). Mackay told the committee in 1875 that the petition was instigated by Pakeha who wanted to make separate and private arrangements about coal. He claimed the petitioners were ‘rahi’ to Ngati Tamatera, whose chiefs could speak for them. He maintained that some of the petitioners had been present when coal was discussed, and one of their principal men, Pineaha Te Wharekohai had signed the deed. After confusing evidence about tribal relationships, the committee recommended that they should state their case to the Native Land Court.¹⁰² Included also in the leased area were promised, but unmarked, reserves at Mataora and Waihi. The last in particular was to lead to confrontations between Maori who had been promised the reserve and miners wanting to gain access to its gold.

Te Hira hoped that the land would eventually be cleared of debt and returned to Maori ownership. Paul Monin records him as stating, ‘Although he [McLean] might take the flesh, [Ngati Tamatera] would keep the bone … The gold has been given to you … and when all our debts are paid you can give [the land] back to us.’¹⁰³ His view was that the mining agreement set a new boundary to Pakeha settlement, as ‘Sir Donald McLean had promised him … that no new Europeans should be allowed to settle on lands south of the Gold Fields line’. He objected to a settler, George Cribb erecting a hut on the line of road from Paeroa to Mackaytown.¹⁰⁴

10.3 Crown Purchasing of Ohinemuri

10.3.1 Purchasing resumes, 1877

With the completion of the Ohinemuri mining agreement, the Government had hoped to dispense with commissioned land purchase agents, but (partly because his 1872 instructions were about purchase of Ohinemuri, not a mining lease, and his remuneration for the latter was unclear) Mackay was retained as a commissioned agent until 1878. He was instructed first by McLean and then by Pollen to stop the raihana system and pay only in cash. ‘Nothing but evil will come of your practice’, Pollen wrote in December 1875. Mackay said he had issued no store orders since 10 June 1875, and was glad to stop because he had laid out £4000 in advances and was unsure of recovering the money. (Indeed, he quarrelled

102. Ibid, pp 229–231; ‘Petition of Epiha Taha and Other Natives of Ohinemuri Brought before Parliament and Select Committees’, 18 August 1875, Le 1/1875/12 (doc a8(a), pp 578-614)

103. Thames Advertiser, 19 February 1875 (Monin, p 243)

104. Document a8, p 229. This hut was in the contiguous Te Aroha block.