with whom to deal. As the reserves were concentrated around Omokoroa, Te Apata, Matapuhi, Ongare, and Tuapiro, buying as large an area as possible – often a group of reserves – from one or two individuals was a trend that continued in some parishes in the Katikati-Te Puna block. In the Parish of Tahawai, for example, the majority of the reserves were clustered together, which created larger contiguous areas. The size of Lot 9, Parish of Tahawai, which was 500 acres with only two owners, in theory, acting as trustees for Ngaitamawhariua, may have been a drawcard for prospective buyers. Indeed, Thomas L. Macky bought it from Timi te Rua and Rotoehu on 1 January 1869 for £92.⁴² Macky, or Mackee, was a shipping agent for the S.S. Tauranga, which at this time was running between Auckland and Thames, and had previously purchased Lot 208, Parish of Apata, on 4 December 1868.⁴³

R. J. Gill was the active buyer in the block. His third purchase of land there was at Tahawai: Lot 11, which was sold by Hohepa Te Kai, on 4 December 1868. Gill paid £40 for the 200-acre reserve.⁴⁴ Gill soon acquired other reserves at Rereatukahia that were adjacent to Lot 11. The next to be sold out of this group was Lot 12, a block of 250 acres that had been granted to Te Moananui on 5 January 1869, but remained unregistered until 4 November 1869.⁴⁵ By this time, the reserve had changed hands twice. On 12 February 1869, it was sold to the District Surveyor, Skeet, for £37.10.0 ⁴⁶ The transaction was approved by T. H. Smith, J. P., under the provisions of the Justices of the Peace Act, 1866. Skeet smartly onsold the allotment at the higher price of £80 to to R. J. Gill on 10 March 1869.⁴⁷ Three hundred acres nearby – Lots 13 and 14 – were also soon bought by Gill from Te Moananui on 25 March 1869, for £45, equivalent to three shillings an acre. Smith also approved this transaction.⁴⁸

These conveyances took place just months before Te Moananui’s death, said, by his daughter, to have been on 29 July 1869.⁴⁹ By that date Te Moananui had actually

⁴² Deed register K1 218, ref. 432^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴³ Deed register K1 206, ref. 396^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴⁴ Deed register K1 208, ref. 399^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴⁵ Crown grant book 2GK ref, 136, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴⁶ Deed register K1 224, ref. 446^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴⁷ Deed register K1 225, ref. 447^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴⁸ Deed register K1 247, ref. 509^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁴⁹ Ngapiri Marata Moananui, 15 August 1878, Tauranga Minute Book (TMB) 1, p. 15.