In 1869, Mackay reported that he went to Ohinemuri in April 1868 to endeavour ‘to prevent the Hauhau Natives from handing their lands and those of the friendly Natives over to the so-called Maori King’. He had little success. Although some Ohinemuri Maori were displeased with Te Hira for acting without their permission, with the backing of the King he had sufficient mana to effect the aukati. Mackay persuaded the Kingitanga followers to agree that the Queen’s police would be allowed across the aukati to remove any trespassing gold prospectors.

10.1.2 A house divided

By March 1868, the aukati established, Ohinemuri had become a ‘locked up box’ as far as gold mining was concerned.⁴ Yet, as was pointed out by Dr Battersby, it was remarkable that it remained so long closed, given that serious differences about allowing mining had arisen among Ohinemuri Maori by 1869. Ohinemuri remained closed to mining until March 1875.

On 16 October 1867, provincial superintendant Williamson visited Thames where, advised by Mackay, Williamson counselled miners not to rush Ohinemuri by force.⁵ Armed conflict between miners and Maori remained a threat: in late 1868 and in 1869 tensions ran especially high because of the presence of unemployed itinerant miners and the nearby military campaigns against Hakaraia of Waitaha and Te Kooti.⁶

In September, Mackay urged the Native Minister to pass legislation imposing stiff fines or imprisonment on anyone mining on Maori land without the permission of the owners, in order:

to prevent the Colony being plunged into a frightful war of extermination. It has been argued by some persons that the best plan to settle the Native difficulty would be to allow the miners to rush the upper Thames Country. An unarmed undisciplined body of men would speedily be driven back by the Natives, and murderous onslaughts would be made which would effectively prevent mining operations being carried on, and destroy the confidence of capitalists who are now beginning to visit the country and assist in the development of the resources of the field.⁷

Mackay’s urging contributed to sections 5 and 6 of the Gold Fields Act Amendment Act 1868, which banned prospecting on Maori customary land without a prospector’s licence,

4. James Mackay, Translation in English: Address of Mackay to Ngati Maru (Thames: WM McCullough General Printer, 25 May 1896) (doc B11(a), p 30)

5. James Mackay, ‘Report by Mr Commissioner Mackay Relative to the Thames Gold Fields’, 27 July 1869, AJHR, 1869, A-17, p 7

6. Some Ngati Porou from Harataunga were involved in these wars: see Judith Binney, Redemption Songs: A Life of Te Kooti-Arikirangi Te Turuki (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1995), pp 193–194, 202.

7. Mackay to Native Minister, 3 September 1868, Le 1/1869/133 (Phillip Hart, ‘Maori and Goldfields Revenue’, unpublished paper, University of Waikato, p 21)