The procedures of the board were set down as follows: to meet for business once a month; special meetings could be convened by the chairman or any other board member providing two days notice had been given; three members were required to form a quorum; the chairman had the casting vote; an annual report would be submitted to the Minister of Lands; if the chairman was not present at any meeting a fellow board member would take the chair; all questions would be decided by the majority vote.

In the first years of its administration the board seems to have continued leasing the reserve for grazing, and established a camping ground. According to Stokes, in its first year the board’s revenue was £10, raised from grazing leases and campers’ fees.⁶⁸ People in Waihi objected to these fees which were called ‘a firewood, fish and pipi tax.’ Later a wharf and pavillion were built by the board.

In 1922 a separate Katikati Domain Board was appointed, rather than the administration being vested in the Katikati Roads Board, which had functioned as the domain board. An Order in Council revoked the previous appointment of the Katikati Road Board, and appointed William Taylor, Walter Burgess, Noble Johnston, Frederick Kendall and Albert Putt to be the Katikati Domain Board.⁶⁹

In 1924 the Bay of Plenty Times described the domain as follows:

Right at hand is attractive fishing and numerous visitors are now patronising the resort, which promises to become one of the most popular watering places in the Auckland Province. Residence sites are let by the Board at 1 pound per annum and between thirty and forty houses are now erected on the reserve. There is also an accomodation house and store, and the Board is determined to do everything possible to increase the popularity of this charming resort.⁷⁰

The next section of this report describes the way the Katikati Domain Board went about developing the reserve.

⁶⁸ Stokes, 1980, p 72

⁶⁹ New Zealand Gazette, 1922, p 3142

⁷⁰ cited in Stokes, 1980, p 72