Motuhoa. The natives appeared highly pleased with the locations allotted to them for future residence …. The only Maori on board who expressed a desire to be permitted to reside elsewhere was the chief Hori Ngatai, who had formerly lived at Otumoetai, and begged to be allowed again to make his home there. It is very probable his request will be acceded to, as the great desire of the chiefs and their followers appears to be to fix their settlements as near as possible to the camp, or to any place where it may be surmised that a body of military settlers will have their farms. Having tendered their submission to the Queen’s authority, and being to all appearance earnestly desirous to remain in peaceful occupation of their lands, the old feeling seems returning to them of the necessity and advantage of having pakeha traders in their midst – with the new feeling superadded, that a residence near a military camp is necessary for their personal safety from enemies of their race.¹⁶

Fox and Whitaker, having cleared the way for a purchase of a portion of a contiguous block of land, and arranged the relocation of local hapu, subsequently returned to Auckland in the company of 18 chiefs, reportedly Hamiora Tu, Mere, Raniera te Hiahia, Mere Taka, Wiremu Patene, Wiremu Parera, Hohepa Hikutaia, Tamati Manuao, Tomika te Mutu, Ranapia, Turere, Maihi Pohepohe, Tawaewae Paerata, Rini Te Matekapua, Te Patu, Arama Karaka Whati, Pikaka, and Hohaia.¹⁷ A number of these rangatira – Hohepa Hikutaia, Wiremu Parera, Wiremu Patene, Tomika Te Mutu, Turere, Pikake, Hamiora Tu, and Raniera Te Hiahia – signed a receipt on 18 August 1864 and received their share of the £1000 deposit for Katikati and Te Puna while they were in Auckland.¹⁸ Many of these rangatira were also known by government officers as ‘leading men’. For example, of those who went to Auckland, Maihi Pohepohe, Hamiora Tu, Wi Patene, and Te Kuka had been appointed Assessors under the Native Circuit Courts Act 1858 and received a salary of £30 per annum.¹⁹ Moreover, seven of the eight signatories were named in the 1866 ‘Return of Officers in the Employ of the Government’: Hamiora Tu, Wi Patene and Te Kuka as Assessors, while Hohepa Hikutaia, Wi Parera, Turere, and Tomika te Mutu began receiving an annual pension of £12.10.0 from December 1864.²⁰

The validity of the transaction, however, was called into question when Enoka te Whanake, who had spoken at the pacification hui and later commented that, ‘[i]f the

¹⁶ Daily Southern Cross, 17 August 1864, p. 4.

17 Daily Southern Cross, 22 August 1864, p. 4. According to an earlier report, only 14 chiefs travelled to Auckland. Daily Southern Cross, 16 August 1864, p.4.

18 There were a number of discrepancies between names on the receipt and those who received a share of the purchase payment. See Stokes, The Allocation of Reserves, vol. 1, p. 31.

19 AJHR 1864, E-7, p. 17, cited in Stokes, The Allocation of Reserves, vol. 1, p. 217.

20 ‘Return of Officers in the Employ of the Government’, AJHR 1866, D-3, pp. 65-6.