alienated all but one of the reserves Crown granted to him.⁵⁰ In addition to Lots 12, 13 & 14, at Rereatukahia, Te Moananui had disposed of Lot 49, 100 acres, in the Parish of Te Mania on 27 October 1868 for £10, to the solicitor Kissling.⁵¹ Records also show that Te Moananui had alienated a reserve that had been granted to Harawira. On 13 October 1868, Te Moananui sold Lot 165, Parish of Te Puna, comprising of 47 acres for £12.15.0, to Abraham Warbrick.⁵² In total, Te Moananui exchanged 697 acres for £105.5.0 in six months. Of these, only Lot 49, Parish of Te Mania had actually been granted to Te Moananui individually. Grievances that arose from the way these alienations were conducted are the subject of Chapter 4.

Gill also entered into an agreement with Hamiora Tu to lease Lot 15, Parish of Tahawai, which, in April 1870, was the last reserve at Rereatukahia still in Maori hands. The agreement was for 25 years at a rate of £5.10.0 per annum.⁵³ The length of this arrangement varied from the standard of 21 years, which had been the usual restriction on leasing imposed by the Native Lands Act, 1866. The length of the lease suggests that this was a private arrangement without recourse to statutory or legal constraints.

Between September 1868 and March 1871, in addition to the transactions already described, Gill bought 100 acres in the Parish of Apata, and leased four other reserves in the Parish of Te Puna, so that most of his properties were concentrated conspicuously in the Parishes of Te Puna and Tahawai. Gill’s involvement in the alienation of reserves at Omokoroa in the Parish of Te Puna has been touched on by Evelyn Stokes and his purchases at Rereatukahia in the Parish of Tahawai are surveyed more closely in the following chapter.⁵⁴ However, because Gill was a government employee at the time of these acquisitions, it is worth devoting the rest of

⁵⁰ Te Moananui and Hori Tupaea were granted Lot 2 (Ahipatiki), 50 acres in the Parish of Katikati.

⁵¹ Deed register K1 197, ref. 376^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁵² Deed register K1 189, ref. 377^K, LINZ, Auckland. Participants were W. H. Kissling, solicitor, William Gundry, surveyor, interpreter, and Thomas Wrigley, Storekeeper, witness. There is an error in the register entry: while the sketch of the reserve is labelled ‘165’, the transaction is recorded as ‘lot 15’. It is worth noting that Warbrick brought the nearby Lot 160 (40 acres) on the same day, from Te Ipu and Riria, for which £40 was paid. Kissling, Gundry and Jonathon Brown (witness) were present.

⁵³ Deed register K1 383, ref. 723^K, LINZ, Auckland.

⁵⁴ Stokes, The Allocation of Reserves, vol. 1, pp. 266-275.