Katikati Te Puna blocks. Records of the commissioners’ decisions can be found in Stokes, Te Raupatu of Tauranga Moana: Volume 2: Documents Relating to Tribal History, Confiscation and Reallocation of Tauranga Lands.21 As a result, payments were made to other tribes and more payments were made to members of Ngaiterangi. The commissioners also agreed to set aside as reserves certain urupa and kainga within the purchased area.
As regards the Katikati block, the main claimant heard by Mackay and Clarke was Te Moananui, representing Hauraki tribes. Stokes has compiled a map (see figure 4) demonstrating Ngaiterangi’s and Te Moananui’s claims to the block, which shows the Otawhiwhi area as belonging to Hori Tupaea, a chief of Whanau a Tauwhao.22 The headland area on the map was divided into three blocks; the coastal side was listed as belonging to Te Hiwi and Te Omanu, the headland point belonged to Whakaraka, and the harbour side of the headland was said to be claimed by both Ngaiterangi and Te Moananui. Mackay and Clarke decided that Moananui did have valid claims to the block, on the grounds of having been in occupation of the area prior to the Ngapuhi invasion. They recommended that the purchase money for the block should be equally divided between Ngaiterangi and Ngatitamatera.23
Historians have argued, given the circumstances in which the purchase was made, that it was, in effect, a compulsory sale and part of the confiscation of the Tauranga district. Stokes has commented:
The Katikati Te Puna Purchase, in the circumstances, must be seen as having the nature of a compulsory purchase. There were certainly many unwilling sellers and subsequent disputes over the ‘rights’ of “Ngaiterangi chiefs” to sell.24
And:
Local people, however, were not really in a position to negotiate the terms of purchase and had little choice but to accept the government’s offer.25
The arbitrations which occurred after the initial agreement to purchase had been made were really to decide who should receive payment for the block rather than to obtain consent to the sale.
It is not only revisionist historians who have described the purchase as a form of confiscation. One contemporary Crown official, at least, felt the same way about the purchase. In 1865 William Fox, the Colonial Secretary, wrote to Governor Grey:
21 Stokes, 1992, pp 87-116
22 ‘Te Moananui’s land claims: Map redrawn from Mackay’s “Copy of sketch plan of land at Tauranga as drawn by Te Moananui on the floor of the Wesleyan Chapel, Auckland, on the 12th December 1864”, in Stokes, 1992, p 88
23 ‘Report on Te Moananui’s and Ngaiterangi claims to lands at Katikati District of Tauranga’, in Stokes, 1992, pp 90-91
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