These statements raise two issues: the nature of Mokena’s ‘gift’ and the ‘agreement’ about Maori use of the hot springs. In the claimants’ view, both have implications for current management of the domain and the hot springs.

19.5MOKENA'S ‘GIFTS’ AND THE SALE OF TE AROHA TOWNSHIP LAND

Section 16, which is the hot springs reserve (20 acres or eight hectares), is within the area of section 15 (334 acres) which was the reserve granted to nine members of the Mokena whanau. Section 17 (400 acres) was granted to Ema Lipsey, daughter of Te Mokena Hou and wife of George Lipsey, and their two children, Ani and Akuhata (fig 84). David Alexander, researcher for the Hauraki claimants, stated:

Within the Omahu Reserve, an area of 20 acres around the hot springs seems not to have been granted back to Ngati Rahiri owners as part of the Omahu Reserve. Instead, it seems to have been retained by the Crown, and treated as part of the Te Aroha purchase, with the boundaries of Omahu Reserve adjusted to ensure that Ngati Rahiri received the areas they had been promised. References to the negotiations leading up to this decision have not been located.³⁹

Robyn Anderson, in her report for the Hauraki claimants, also felt that the circumstances of the transaction were ‘not entirely clear’:

Certainly local politicians were concerned that the springs be obtained, the Mayor of Thames requesting Sheehan [Native Minister] to instruct Mackay to reserve the area as public property ... The details of the actual negotiation are unknown but the tradition is that Te Mokena Hou, the head of the whanau, ‘gifted’ the springs to form a ‘recreation reserve’. It was arranged at the same time, that Maori should retain a right of free access to the springs while George Lipsey, son-in-law to Te Mokena Hou, was appointed to the Te Aroha Hot Springs Domain Board.⁴⁰

In Maori terms, Te Mokena Hou’s ‘gift’ consisted in his allowing the Crown to include the hot springs area in their initial purchase. It is probable that this Maori perception of the transaction is the origin of the later belief in a free gift. There is no written record of any discussion of the springs or oral agreement about their use with Mackay in purchase negotiations, but the Crown has conceded that the weight of evidence supports the idea that the 20 acres were the gift of Te Mokena Hou.⁴¹

39.Document A10, pt 3, p 211

40.Document A9, pp31-32

41.Paper 2.550, pp 42-43