described cultivations, and eel weirs, and expeditions from the coast inland up the Waihou River. Uses of the hot springs were not discussed in the court hearing.

In 1869, the Te Aroha block was awarded to Ngati Haua, although it was acknowledged by all parties that, until Taumatawiwi, the block was within the rohe of Marutuahu tribes. The Native Land Court concluded:

The evidence given on both sides is, as usual in cases of tribal disputes, very contradictory, but the Court will follow the rule which it has laid down in similar cases, that those who are found in undisputed possession of land in this country at the time the English Government took formal possession of the Island shall be considered as the real owners of the soil.¹⁴

Marutuahu tribes protested Judge Rogan’s decision and a rehearing was granted. In April 1871, Judges Maning and Rogan concluded that at no time had Marutuahu tribes relinquished their claim to Te Aroha, that any Waikato or Ngati Haua people living there ‘unmolested on the Aroha lands, were there by permission of the Marutuahu people, but who did not concede to them any right of ownership’. Since Taumatawiwi, Marutuahu tribes ‘made use of the land at will ... and as fully and frequently, it would appear, as they chose to do’. The Court awarded the block to ‘the Marutuahu tribes’.¹⁵

Mapuna Turner, in her evidence to Waitangi Tribunal, quoted oral tradition among Ngati Rahiri Tumutumu: ‘It is said that when Marutuahu left Hauraki to go and live in Maungatautari, we refused and chose not to go with the rest. We sought protection from the mountain, the ngahere (bush) and in the swamps. I say protection because we knew the area well.’¹⁶

All Ngati Rahiri Tumutumu witnesses were adamant that they had not relinquished their kaitiaki role over the mountain and the hot springs at its base.

19.3 THE TE AROHA HOT SPRINGS

The geothermal area at Te Aroha consisted originally of more than 20 hot springs, but now fewer than 10 are active. The total flow of hot water has changed little, but the excavation of a tunnel in 1889 to tap water for the baths, and several holes drilled from 1936 for the same purpose, have affected flows in the smaller springs.¹⁷ In the first detailed geological survey

14.Ibid, fol 303

15.Hauraki minute book 4, fols 257-258; Native Land Court, Important Judgements Delivered in the Compensation Court and Native Land Court, 1866-1879 (Auckland: General Steam Printer, 1879), pp 132-133

16.Document J2o, p 7

17.M A Mongillo and L Clelland, Concise Listing of Information on the Thermal Areas and Thermal Springs of New Zealand, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research Geothermal Report 9 (Wellington: Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1984), pp 78-79; Evelyn Stokes, The Legacy of Ngatoroirangi: Maori Customary Use of Geothermal Resources (Hamilton: Department of Geography, University of Waikato, 2000), p 230