During the 1870s, Pakeha land speculators were taking an interest in the northern Raukawa lands called Te Kaokaoroa o Patetere. On 10 May 1880 an investigation of the title of the Whaiti Kuranui Block began in the Native Land Court at Cambridge before F.D. Fenton, Chief Judge, and John Jermyn Symonds, Judge, and continued under these and other judges from time to time until the end of May 1883. A large portion of the Whaiti Kuranui Block passed into the hands of Joseph Howard and Edwin Barnes Walker who, with their land purchase agents, played a major role in the subdivision of the Patetere area. These two were directors of the New Zealand Thames Valley Land Company which acquired very large land holdings in the area.

Other large holdings were acquired by the Auckland Agricultural Company and there was also the large Matamata Estate acquired by J.C. Firth.

The activities of the land purchase agents were highly disruptive to local communities as they required long periods away in attendance at Land Court hearings in Cambridge, Tauranga or Rotorua. During this period there was a drift back to the Patetere area by some Ngata Raukawa from the Manawatu but most settled in the Putaruru area. It seems likely that the disintegration of Kuranui, Hanga and other settlements began in the 1870s. On the other side of the range to the north, the settlements along the bush margin were gradually abandoned from the 1880s on as the inhabitants moved to coastal villages closer to the European settlement at Tauranga to work for wages, or found jobs outside the district, rather than maintain a subsistence on the edge of the bush.

The niu at Kuranui stands not only as a monument to Pai Marire, but also a monument to the peace and goodwill of Wiremu Tamihana Tarapipipi Te Waharoa, a man of peace, forced into war. In his last petition to Government before his death in December 1866 he wrote of the invasion of Waikato by Imperial Troops (AJHR G2, 1866):

At the time of the fight at Rangiaohia I discovered that this would be a very great war, because it was conducted in such a pitiless manner… the steamer sailed up the Horotiu [Waikato] River. I then said to the people who were living beside the river at their usual place of abode “ come let us off to Maungatautari - leave this place to be without occupants, lest evil spring up here ” . So they hearkened to what I said, and we all gathered at Maungatautari. The steamer also came there. Then I said to my people again “ Let us leave this place to be alone. ” They again assented to me and what I said, but we did fight then with the soldiers for the space of about ten minutes; then we left and went to the mountains, to Patetere, and left the river of Waikato. Because of my great desire for peace, therefore did I remove my people from thence lest further grief should be occasioned by the death of relatives in which case it would not have been possible to suppress the evil.

Now, O Friend, this is how I have been saved from evil - because of my constant striving to do that which is good, ever since the introduction of Christianity on to the time of the King Movement, and up to the present days of darkness. After we had embraced Christianity, when my tribe sought payment for our dead who had fallen I did not give up my consent. Then I said “ Stop, strive to repay in a Christian manner. Let peaceful living be the payment for my dead. ” They consented. I then drew all my enemies