The ‘Plan of Native Reserves between the Wairoa and Te Puna Rivers’ shows that Pukewhanake itself was within lot 178 which had been granted to Enoka Te Whanake (see Figure 9).84 Lot 178 was 70 acres on the river bank. The other lot awarded to Enoka, lot 177, was immediately south of Pukewhanake, with a small river frontage. The lots granted to Maihi Haki were west of lot 178, with no river frontage or access. The Crown grant of lot 178 to Enoka Te Whanake was made on 5 January 1869, under the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 and the New Zealand Settlements Amendment and Continuance Act 1865.85 The grant was made to Enoka as sole owner.
Not long afterwards, Enoka sold the block to Thomas Craig, a timber merchant from Auckland, on 13 May 1869.86 Craig paid £17:10:0 for the 70 acre lot. The deed was endorsed by licensed interpreter C.T.F. Baron de Thierry, who declared he had read the deed to Enoka in Maori and that Enoka understood the full meaning of the deed. It appears that the deed was signed in Auckland.
Craig, as well as being a timber merchant, seems to have been something of a land speculator, because in 1870 he sold lot 178, as part of a sale of 13 freehold and 8 leasehold lots to J.S. Macfarlane.87 The block passed through two more owners before being purchased by William Alfred Clarke of Tauranga. On 17 February 1877 Clarke paid £600 for lot 178.88
Lot 178 was held by the Clarke family until 1971, when it was transferred to ‘Te Wairoa Farm Limited’.89 This may have been a Clarke family company, as the Clarkes had called their property ‘Te Wairoa’. The first certificate of title for lot 178 was issued in 1930, and registered Florence Mary Clarke, the wife of Herbert Pasquale Clarke, as the owner of the land. In 1932 the land was transferred to Isabel and William Clarke, who then transferred it to Hector James Clarke in 1938.
2.4 CONTROL, USE AND MANAGEMENT OF PUKEWHANAKE
Pukewhanake was part of the area confiscated from its traditional owners west of the Wairoa River. Although it was part of an area of land that was subsequently awarded to Maori, the fact that it was awarded to a chief for his loyalty, rather than because he had traditional ties to the land, meant that it was quickly alienated into Pakeha ownership.
Once lot 178 had been transferred to private Pakeha ownership, Maori had no say over the use and management of Pukewhanake. Lot 178 became part of Clarke’s farm on the west bank of the Wairoa River. Clarke’s property, as it was in 1910, was described by the Bay of Plenty Times:
F9