In the matter of what is presumed to be a Maori Reserve 50 acres more or less situated in the said Reserve (Bowen Town Domain) and adjoining Katikati Lot 1 (68 acres) and Maori Owned. It is the desire of members of the Tauwhaao Sub-Tribe, Owners of Lot 1 Katikati to approach the Minister for Lands as to the possibility of having this Area handed over to them for Development, as the Said 68 acres Lot 1 Katikati is now too small and uneconomic to settle.55
He also made personal submissions to the Minister of Maori Affairs regarding the burial ground and the possibility of having an area of the domain handed over to the hapu for development. In response, the Minister of Maori Affairs said that the burial reserve had been defined as Katikati 1B1, an area of 2 roods, by the partition order of 1940.36 In order to have it officially recognised as a burial reserve, an application would need to be made to have it set aside as a Maori reservation under the Maori Purposes Act 1937. As regards the 50 acre area of the domain (presumably lot 25), which Roretana thought might be a Maori reserve, the Minister informed him that this was Crown land, and suggested that he approach the Commissioner of Crown Lands to see whether it was available for purchase. Presumably the Minister of Maori Affairs was unaware that it had been set aside as a recreation reserve.
Roretana’s approaches to these government departments indicate that Whanau a Tauwhao had insufficient land reserved for them, and thought that they had some rights to the land reserved as a public domain. Given that the domain board granted grazing rights to certain farmers as a means of earning revenue from the domain (see part 6), it would have been possible to make some sort of arrangement which allowed Whanau a Tauwhao use of the domain land to supplement their own reserved land.
Marae Renaissance
Despite the fact that many local Maori felt compelled to leave the area in the 1960s and 1970s for work, education and other opportunities, the marae has retained its place as the focal point for Whanau o Tauwhao: ‘Many return regularly to gather shellfish from the rich beds nearby, to camp and to visit relatives.’ During the 1970s a renewed interest in the marae was fostered through hui and the marae newsletter ‘Te Papaunahi’.57
In June 1977 the first issue of the newsletter, ‘Te Papaunahi’, was issued so that the scattered Whanau a Tauwhao could maintain contact. The newsletter reminded the people that they had in the past been dispersed between Rangiwaea, Otumoetai, Otawhiwhi, Tuhua, Motiti and the Alderman Islands, and that salt water was still in their blood. The newsletter went on to remind the people of the common bond which united the people of Tauwhao:
55 Roretana to Minister of Lands, date obscured, MA 1 21/1/40 Katikati Burial Tauranga, NA Wellington
56 Minister of Maori Affairs to Roretana, 18 July 1952, MA 21/1/40 Katikati Burial Tauranga, NA Wellington [p 10]
18