hearings are listed in appendix i of this report. At these hearings, the Tribunal heard evidence that related both to the claims of local hapu and to district-wide issues.

At several points during the hearing process, it became necessary for the Tribunal to alter the way in which the inquiry was being conducted. These changes were made with a view to assisting the parties to prepare for the hearings in an expeditious and efficient manner. By November 1998, the Tribunal had become concerned with the possibility that evidence would be repeated several times during hearings and that an overly long timeframe would be necessary for all the evidence to be heard. These issues were discussed at a judicial conference, and the Tribunal issued a direction proposing to separate out all the harbour- related evidence and hear it at a ‘generic’ hearing.¹² On 8 August 2000, the presiding officer also directed that claims lodged after 10 November 2000 would not be heard as part of the Tauranga Moana inquiry.¹³

Soon afterwards, a further change in the hearing schedule was announced. On 17 August, the Tribunal issued a direction that it would proceed to hear and report on the Tauranga claims in two stages. The first stage of the inquiry would report on issues related to the raupatu, which included:

► the Crown’s intervention in Tauranga Moana;

► the battles of Pukehinahina and Te Ranga;

► the pacification hui;

► the Katikati–Te Puna purchase;

► the ‘bush campaign’; and

► the return of land by the commissioners of Tauranga land.

The direction added that the Tribunal’s initial report would also cover the following issues, even though they did not necessarily have a direct relationship to the raupatu:

► the ‘cms purchase’;

► the events leading up to the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi; and

► relations between the Crown and Maori in Tauranga from 1840 to 1864.

The direction also stated that the Tribunal hoped to hear all outstanding claimant evidence relating to the raupatu in three more weeks of hearings, the last of which would be in December 2000. It then invited the Crown to present its raupatu evidence in February and April 2001. Once these hearings were completed, the Tribunal hoped to present a report on the confiscation and other issues before proceeding to a second stage of hearings and a report on twentieth-century claims.¹⁴ The present report covers the issues examined in stage 1 of the inquiry.

12. Paper 2.198

13. Paper 2.286

14. Paper 2.288