in section 8 of the 1893 amendment to the Maori Real Estate Management Act 1888 which allowed the trustees of Ani Ripihia’s interests to transfer these to the Crown.⁴³ In February 1894, an additional 46 acres in section 15 were declared Crown land and added to Te Aroha hot springs domain in August 1898.⁴⁴

Through the 1890s, Government land purchase officers sought to acquire the interests in the balance of section 15, Morgantown. In 1889, on the Mokena whanau’s application, the restrictions on alienation of the remaining Maori land in section 15 were removed. By 1902, the last of a series of transactions was completed.⁴⁵ Section 15, which carried a number of goldfield leases in Te Aroha township, was declared Crown land in August 1902.⁴⁶

When section 16 was set aside as a hot springs reserve, it was already Crown land, having been part of the Te Aroha block purchased by James Mackay for the Crown. The deed of transfer specified that reserves be set aside for Maori but these had not been surveyed or the boundaries decided when the deed was signed. Because the hot springs reserve was already Crown land, there was legally no need for Te Mokena Hou to ‘give’ the land to the Crown. He had already ‘given’ it in allowing the initial purchase to include the hot springs. But the additional 46 acres were clearly purchased by the Crown, not given by the Mokena whanau. Another alleged gift’, the land in Herries Memorial Park, was also purchased as part of the balance of section 15 acquired by the Crown in 1902. Nevertheless, the idea of a gift of the hot springs has continued in Te Aroha local history, demonstrating again the different values Maori placed on such transactions and the payment for them:

Certain areas had been made over by the native owners as free gifts: the Domain, with the hot springs, and the area now forming the Herries Memorial Park, by Mokena to the State: by him also was given the original site of the Roman Catholic Church: the site of the Anglican Church and that of the Methodist Church, also the school site, were the gifts of Mrs Lipsey.⁴⁷

In a ‘diamond jubilee’ publication of the Piako County Council, Harris remarked on the purchase of the Te Aroha block and the establishment of the Te Aroha township:

The Native Land Court hearing in the purchase of certain portions of the Aroha Block, with Mr James Mackay representing the Crown, took place at Thames during the latter part of 1877 and the earlier part of the following year. Certain reservations were made for the natives; but it proved a difficult fight to get the Hot Springs reserve. It may be added that

43.Document G1, pp 26-27; doc A10, pt 3, pp 218-224

44.‘Native Lands Acquired by Her Majesty Declared to be Crown Lands’, 30 January 1894, New Zealand Gazette 1894, no 10, p 209; ‘Addition to Te Aroha Hot Springs Domain Brought under “The Public Domains Act 1881”’, 8 August 1898, New Zealand Gazette, 1898, no 61, p 1308

45.Document G1, pp 22-35

46.‘Native Lands Acquired by His Majesty Declared to be Crown Lands’, 25 August 1902, New Zealand Gazette, 1902, no 68, p 1778

47.Te Aroha News, Te Aroha and the Fortunate Valley (Te Aroha: Te Aroha News, 1930), p 283