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The 'Little Bush' on the Plains:

the Alienation of Waitanoa

Richard Moorsom

Wellington, November 1998

A historical report on aspects of the Wai 168 claim

Author's Statement

Tena koutou. My name is Richard Moorsom. I am a Pakeha originally from England, although I have spent a fair part of my life in Africa. This included childhood years in South Africa and, most recently, six years in Namibia after its independence helping to establish a policy research unit.

Today I reside in Wellington and work for the Waitangi Tribunal as a research officer. I am trained as a historian, having gained in 1973 a first-class BA(Hons) in English history and philosophy from the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, and a MA in African Studies from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, in 1974. Since then, I have worked professionally both in development policy analysis and in historical research.

My historical research has focussed on processes of colonisation, land alienation and national liberation, focussing especially on Namibia. I have published a number of articles in scholarly journals and approximately a dozen books and short monographs. Before joining the Tribunal in 1997, I undertook a period of contract history research for Rangitane ki Manawatu. During 1997-98 I completed reports on the Tarawera and Tataraakina Blocks in the Mohaka-Waikare Confiscation District (Wai 299/638) and the Tarawera Road Depot claim (Wai 638), and co- authored a report on the Kupa whanau claim (Wai 731).

Maps and Figures

Maps and Plans!l]

(at front)

Map 1. Heretaunga Plains, mid-19th Century Map 2. Waiohiki, Papakura and Waitanoa, approx. late 1860s

(in Appendix 3)

Map 3a. Representation ofWaitanoa in Crown Deeds: Lease, 20 July 1865 Map 3b. Representation ofWaitanoa in Crown Deeds: Lease, 15 June 1866 Map 3c. Representation ofWaitanoa in Crown Deeds: Sale Agreement, 2 August 1867 Map 3d. Representation ofWaitanoa in Crown Deeds: Conveyance, 17 March 1868 Map 4. Te Whanganui a Orotu and Heretaunga Plains, 1852 Map 5. Waiohiki, Papakura and Waitanoa, approx. mid 1860s Map 6. Waitanoa, approx. late 1860s Map 7. Maori Reserves and Government Purchases under the Native Lands Act in Hawke's Bay, to 1873 Map 8. Waiohiki, Papakura and Waitanoa, 1890 Map 9. Forested Land in Hawke's Bay, c 1840

Figures (in Appendix 3)

Figure 1. Heretaunga Plains, 1851 (watercolour painting) Figure 2. Coastal Heretaunga Plains South of Napier, 1864 (photograph) Figure 3. Coastal Heretaunga Plains South of Napier, 1867 (photograph) Figure 4. Coastal Heretaunga Plains South of Napier, 1871 (photograph) Figure 5. Hui at Pawhakairo, 71863 (engraving) Figure 6. Hui at Pawhakairo, 1865 (photograph) Figure 7. Waitanoa, July 1998 (photographs)

Where not indicated on the original, the locations ofPawhakairo and Waitanoa have been labelled.

Sources of Maps and Figures

Map 1

Map 2

Map 3a Map3b Map3c Map 3d Map 4 Map 5

Map 6

Map 7

Map 8 Map 9 Figure 1

Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Figure 6 Figure 7

Mooney, Kay, History of the County of Hawke's Bay, (Hawke's Bay County Council, 1975), Part 3. Plan of the Napier Country Districts ... , James Rochfort, LINZ Na & Map 5001, HBM. Deed oflease dated 20 July 1865, HWB 133, LINZ HO. Deed oflease dated 15 June 1866, HWB 134, LINZ HO. Deed of agreement on sale dated 2 August 1867, HWB 135, LINZ HO. Deed of sale dated 17 March 1868, HWB 137, LINZ HO. Section of Bousefield's map of Hawke's Bay, 1852 (ROD E22L). Untitled, Map 5678, HBM. Annotated on the reverse side 'Heretaunga Plains' and '1865'. Plan of Papakura between Tareha's Bridge and Pawhakairo, annotated as 1880, Map 5151, HBM. Section of Plan to accompany returns dated July 11 1873, probably HH Turton, Map 5365, HBM. Untitled district cadastral plan by Williams, 1890, LINZ Na. Grant, Forests ofyesterday, map 3, p.129. Charles Rudston Read, Ahuriri plains, Hawke's Bay, watercolour, c 1851, Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK202, National Library of Australia (copies: HBM & Photographic Collection 106 RNKYz, ATL). Photographic Collection 4184, HBM. Photographic Collection 3313 & 3314, HBM. Photographic Collection 2246, HBM. Engraving of sketch of hui at Pawhakairo, probably 20 July 1863, from Illustrated London News, Photographic Collection 2691, HBM. Photographic Collection 5290, HBM. Photographs taken by the author, July 1998.

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Wai 168: Waitanoa (^) Page 2

Hawke's Bay Museum, the map and photograph collection at the Museum, survey plans and maps at the Napier office ofLINZ, and files at the Takitimu Maori Land Court.

1.3 Outline of the Report

This report focuses specifically on the small, 94-acre block ofland known as Waitanoa. 19 th century cadastral maps place the block towards the northwestern corner of the larger Papakura block, midway between the Tutaekuri Waimate and the old channel of the Tutaekuri River (see Map 2). It straddled what is today known as Gilligan's Road, with its western corner connecting to the intersection between Pakowhai and Allen Roads and the eastern corner lying close to the stopbank of the present course of the Tutaekuri River.

The report is organised into two main chapters.

Chapter 2 sets the context for the sale of Waitanoa. It assesses the significance ofthe 'Little Bush' in the ecology of the Heretaunga plains and in the mid-19th century patterns of population settlement and resource use. It reviews the pressures arising from the expansion of Pakeha land settlement, Maori and provincial government attitudes during the early 1860s towards further land alienation, and the negotiation of the lease of the Papakura block in 1865. It concludes with an examination of the passing of the Papakura block through the Native Land Court in 1866 and the sale of the block to the provincial government during 1867-68.

Chapter 3 focuses on Waitanoa itself. It documents the exclusion ofWaitanoa from the sale of

. Papakura, then analyses in detail the circumstances of the leasing and private sale of Waitanoa during 1866-67. It reviews the handling of the Waitanoa case before the 1873 Hawke's Bay Native Lands Alienation Commission and the adequacy of the Commission's report and findings. It concludes with a brief review of the outcome and of the title status ofWaitanoa as revealed by later cadastral plans.

Wai 168: Waitanoa (^) Page 3

2. The Alienation of the Papakura Block

2.1 The 'Little Bush' in the Ecology of the Heretaunga Plains

The coastal zone of southern Hawke's Bay, known in the mid-19 th^ century as the Heretaunga plains, has a distinctive natural environment which today sustains one of the most productive agricultural economies in the country. Sandwiched between the ranges ofthe central divide, the coastal hills running southwards from Cape Kidnappers and the hilly coastal lowlands to the north, it forms a drainage basin for an extensive river system. Three major rivers, the Tukituki, the Ngaruroro and the Tutaekuri, reach the coast within a five kilometre stretch and a fourth, the Waiohinganga, disgorges at the northern edge of the basin.

Two factors have ensured that the landscape of the Heretaunga plains has been subject to frequent change. The first is the action of the rivers by siltation and flood. The larger floods could bring not only permanent alterations of channel but also widespread destruction of vegetation and depositing of soil and gravel. The old river courses remained as structural features of the local landscape, often as tributary streams. The second factor is earth movements resulting from Hawke's Bay's location in the boundary zone between the Pacific and Australasian tectonic plates. The most dramatic in recent times was the uplifting during the 1931 earthquake, which not only raised the entire area but tilted the lowlands from north to south, backing up the Tutaekuri River, which at that time flowed northwards into Te Whanganui a Orotu.

In the mid-19 th^ century the drainage pattern of the 30-kilometre coastal belt between present-day Bay View and Te Awanga differed markedly from the flat, well-drained agricultural landscape that was built up following the 1931 earthquake. The lower channels of the Tukituki and Ngaruroro Rivers were much where they are today. However, the shingle bar running south from Mataruahou (Napier Hill) turned their outflow northwards along the Waitangi Stream into the lagoon system of Te Whanganui a Orotu. [3] Just inland, the Tutaekuri also turned northwards from the eastern end of the Waiohiki block through Maraenui, while the Waiohinganga turned south into the northern end of the lagoon. Periodic river floods would break through to the sea

3 Buchanan, JD, The Maori history and place names of Hawke's Bay, (Wellington: AH & AW Reed, 1973), p 89.

Wai 168: Waitanoa

water. .. ". Captain Wing of the Trent, in 1837, charted the Ahuriri harbour and noted that there was a "Great scarcity of wood and water about this harbour ... ".

PageS

The earliest panoramic photographs taken in the 1860s looking southwards from Napier Hill capture little detail beyond the middle distance, an effective horizon of at best about 5 km. The foreground appears as a maze of chalmels, lagoons and swamp and is devoid of trees and bushes. Beyond the Tutaekuri River, the perspective is too blurred and compressed to distinguish even large features such as clumps of bush. But a watercolour painted by Charles Read in about 1851 from the same vantage point throws the bush into sharp focus (see Figure 1). On the virtually featureless grassy plain beyond the swampy foreground, two substantial patches of bush stand out: Pakiaka, located near the coast between the Ngaruroro and Tukituki Rivers; and Waitanoa or 'Little Bush', further inland on the south banle of the Tutaekuri. The three or four other stands shown in the painting as within the rim of the plains are all very small. Pakiaka and Waitanoa were thus key features in the midst of a large area devoid of wood and forest resources.

2.2 Population and Resource Use in the Mid-19th Century

The musket wars of the 1820s brought severe disruption to the settled population of Hawke's Bay. People returned only gradually from Nukutaurua where many had taken refuge. But by the mid-1840s most communities had re-established their normal way oflife, while during the 1830s and 1840s the arrival of visiting whalers, coastal whaling stations and the first Pakeha traders offered new economic opportunities. Te Whanganui a Orotu and the lower river system were the principal economic resources and transport routes of the coastal plains, sustaining a substantial population and a number of maj or settlements.

South of Te Whanganui a Orotu, a number of settlements were located on the banks of the Ngaruroro and Tutaekuri Rivers. They included Te Awapuni and Pokonao, two kainga at the coast, and Pouraukawa (Kohupatiki), Tanenuiarangi and Pakowhai on the banks of the Ngaruroro. Along the Tutaekuri, the lower 8-10 km were too swampy for permanent settlement but the area beyond present-day Taradale, where the river enters the plain, was a major focus of settlement. On its south bank in the shadow of the historic Otatara and Hikurangi pa sites were the Takutaioterangi and Waiohiki kainga; the Omarunui kainga was 2-3 km upstream. In the1850s, Tareha took a leading role in building a substantial new palisaded settlement at

Wai 168: Waitanoa (^) Page 6

Pawhakairo, about haIfa kilometre upstream ofWaiohiki.[8] This was to function as his principal base during the l860s when he was at the height of his political influence.

The building of Pawhakairo symbolised in part a sustained effort during the 1850s and early 1860s by the rangatira of central Hawke's Bay to realise the vision of prosperity through partnership that Donald McLean had promoted as a key potential benefit from the sale of the Ahuriri, Mohaka and Waipukurau blocks to the Crown in 1851.[9] Situated close to the nascent Pakeha port and town of Napier, right at the boundary of the Ahuriri block and on a main waterway between the coast and the interior, the settlement was also intended to become a centre of economic activity. Already in the 1840s, local Maori had begun to exploit opportunities to grow exotic cash crops such as wheat for sale to whalers and traders. [10] In the late 1850s and early 1860s, leaders such as Tareha and Paora Kaiwhata expanded their field cultivations and invested the proceeds of land sales in grain mills at their kainga at Waiohiki and Omarunui respectively.[ll] In July 1861, Renata Tamakihikurangi made sure that Superintendent Carter was aware of this economic engagement:[12]

I will make Imown to you the fruits of peaceable conduct. At Omarunui there will [be] 1600 bushells sown for seed, at Te Karauru 2030 bush., at Te Awa aTe Atua 210 bush., at Omahu 180 bush. All parts of Heretaunga are all busy sowing wheat to grind in the mill. What will be the consequence of these things? Some are busy shooting birds for eating ... .1 am busy building a wooden house, Europeans are the workmen. Friend, our mill is finished. When the Maori inhabitants do these great and valuable things, it proves that it is a place of note.

Wood resources, scarce on the Heretaunga plains, were important for the local settlements - as building timber for whare and palisades, as carving material for implements and weapons, and as a daily fuel supply. Rakaihikuroa, father of Taraia, is reputed to have taken trees from Pakiaka

8 Buchanan, Place names, pp 53-5, 81-92. 9 O'Malley, Vincent, The Ahuriri Purchase, (Crown Forest Rental Trust, 1995. ROD nO); ibid, 'Land deeds as treaties: the New Zealand experience', Paper presented to the 17 th^ Annual Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference, La Trobe University, July 1998; Ballara, Angela & Scott, Gary, 'Ahuriri block file', in Crown purchases of Maori land in early provincial Hawke's Bay, (1994. ROD II). 10 Cowie, Dean, Rangahaua Whanui District lIB: Hawke's Bay, September 1996 (ROD n2), pp 13-17; Wright, Matthew, Hawke's Bay: the history of a province, (Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 1995), pp 24-25, 31. 11 Cowie, Hawke's Bay, pp 50-51; Paora Kaiwhata to Capt. Carter, 4 July 1861; Kaiwhata to McLean, 22 July 1862, HB4!13, NA; Kaiwhata to Grey, 29 April 1862; Tareha & Kaiwhata to McLean, 23 August 1862, McLean Papers, MS-Papers-0032-0686F & H, ATL. 12 Renata Tamakihikurangi to Capt. Calier, 3 July 1862, HB4113, NA.

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Mediating the antagonism between the runholder and small farmer factions, pressure mounted on the fledgeling Hawke's Bay Provincial Council to unlock the plains for settlement.

The Council also had to take account of the partial success of Maori owners in imposing their preferred method, leasing. Although leasing remained illegal under the 1846 Native Land Purchase Ordinance, growing numbers of Pakeha stock-owners were proving willing to take the risk, placing their informal arrangements with Maori owners outside the reach of the colonial judicial and taxation system. An 1864 return listed a number of Pakeha runholders occupying land on the plains, the largest being a syndicate lease of20,000 acres for £750 per annumY7]

Nationally, the regime of Crown pre-emption on the sale and lease of Maori-owned land was approaching its end. But the 1862 Native Lands Act, which abolished pre-emption in favour of private buying and selling of Maori land, was not signed into law until late 1864 and was anyway never implemented in Hawke's Bay. Not until late 1865 was a revised Bill passed and enacted.

In the meantime, the Provincial Council needed to find a way around the impasse. In his opening address to the Council in February 1862, Superintendent Carter vented his frustration:[18]

I must now call your attention to the fact that the leasing of Native lands as runs by Europeans has not as yet received any check: on the contrary, I believe runs are still sought for and obtained, notwithstanding that the Native Land Purchase Ordinance, which is still in force, prohibits Europeans dealing with the Natives for their lands. These illegal acts give a very unfair advantage over those persons who ... have abstained from infringing it...

He warned of the risk that runholders might pre-empt the later availability of land for closer settlement:

The permanent occupation ofthe Ahuriri plains for pastoral purposes would be highly detrimental to the Province. It would be a death-blow to our future prosperity, not only as affecting the interests of the working classes, but of the revenue as well.

17 Return ofpersons occupying Native lands ... , AJHR 1864 E-I0. 18 Address of His Honor the Superintendent on Opening the Council, 3 February 1862, HBVP 1862.

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Carter recommended that 'no action whatever be taken' pending the introduction of new land legislation. A year later, however, his experienced successor, Donald McLean, was ready to propose active intervention: 'the acquisition of fresh tracts ofland from the Natives' .[19] McLean feared that with the imminent removal of Crown pre-emption,

... the Province will be placed in competition with individual capitalists and speculators, who are prepared to invest largely in the purchase of land, and in whose hands it will in all probability be locked up for an indefinite period from access to the industrious classes.

Accordingly he requested authority to raise a £30,000 loan for a Provincial land purchase programme as well as another £30,000 for immigration and infrastructure. He anticipated 'much more difficulty and expense than formerly' with further land purchasing but considered that 'time, patience, and available funds will no doubt remove some ofthe obstacles to the acquisition of land adapted to the requirements of agricultural settlers'.

Maori too had their problems with extra-legal leasing. Tenants did not always pay up, a recognized means of settling disputes was lacking, and stock trespass was common. Rival claims to the right to lease particular areas of land were also common. In May 1861, a coalition of Hawke's Bay chiefs protested vigorously to the Superintendent against Te Hapuku's leasing to a sheep-farmer ofland at Poukawa that they considered belonged to them. Their point was that 'it is not fit... that sheep should be placed on these our lands, on the land concerning which the Maoris themselves are disagreeing. Better is it that the Europeans should remain on those (lands) which have been agreed to by the Government'. In other words, Maori should be left to sort out their own land disputes; Pakeha should not exploit them. The chiefs demanded that the Superintendent require the Pakeha farmer to leave, failing which 'his sheep will be killed by us'. Bearing the signatures of Tareha, Urupeni Puhara, Te Moananui, Karaitiana and 80 others and the emphatic postscript 'from us all is this word', this letter represented a united effort by several of the rangatira of Heretaunga to assert their authority. Clearly, they sought to head off a possible repeat of the 1857-58 conflict with Te Hapuku by involving the provincial government as a partner. [20]

19 Address of His Honor the Superintendent to the Provincial Council of Hawke's Bay, 25 March 1863, HBVP

20 Urupeni Puhara, Karaitiana, Moananui, Tareha & 80 others to 'Governor Thomas' [Fitzgerald], 23 May 1861 (translation), HB4!13, NA. On the 1857-58 conflict, see Cowie, Hawke's Bay,

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The Council was obliged to shift its ground. By November 1863, only eight months after McLean had requested funds for a land purchasing programme, it had been forced to acknowledge that outright purchasing was off the agenda. The adverse political impact of the invasion ofWaikato left less room for manoeuvreY3] McLean's alternative proposal was the long-term lease of Maori land to the Provincial Council. In early 1864, he informed his close associate John Ormond that he was actively promoting the proposal, gaining Ormond's approval: 'I am glad to hear you are putting arrangements in for the leasing [of] the Ahuriri plains ... '[24] In January 1864, McLean forwarded to the Colonial Secretary a council resolution on leasing and followed up quickly with a specific proposaI.l25] On 27 January he found that the Hawke's Bay chiefs were maintaining a united front of opposition to land selling:[26]

In a conversation I had yesterday with several of the chiefs who claim the lower Ahuriri Plains, I find that they are at present indisposed to sell any of these lands that are so much desired by agricultural settlers.

The reasons assigned by the natives for withholding the plains are: that they fear the introduction of a large European popUlation; that their own cattle and stock are increasing so rapidly that they require a considerable extent of land to depasture them on; that all direct authority and control by them over the land would cease after its alienation; and that leasing, which they consider may be determined [ie terminated] at any time on non-fulfilment of the conditions oflease, is much preferable to an absolute sale.

McLean proposed to hold back on land purchasing and go for leasing:

.. .it might be expedient to lease some portions of the plains for a long term of years, which might afterwards be sublet to agricultural settlers.

Shortly afterwards, he reported that the chiefs had accepted the plan. He believed that 'the ultimate purchase will not be prejudiced but rather facilitated by the course adopted' .[27]

23 Address of His Honor the Superintendent on Opening the Provincial Council, 28 June 1864, HBVP 1864. 24 Ormond to McLean, 12 February 1864, McLean Papers, MS-Papers-0032-0481, ATL. 25 McLean to Colonial Secretary, 23 January 1864, Correspondence having reference to the illegal occupation of the Ahuriri Plains ... , HBVP 1865. 26 McLean to Colonial Secretary, 28 January 1864, Correspondence having reference to the illegal occupation of the Ahuriri Plains ... , HBVP 1865. 27 McLean to Colonial Secretary, 18 February 1864, Correspondence having reference to the illegal occupation of the Ahuriri Plains ... , HBVP 1865.

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For much of the year, the colonial government resisted McLean's proposal on the grounds that it might prejudice land sales, and refused authority. In October 1864, the Colonial Secretary sent McLean a Governor's warrant 'appointing you to be a person by whom, and at whose instance, proceedings shall be taken under the Native Land Purchase Ordinance ... ', which was still then in force over most of New Zealand, and thus to act against 'illegal' lessees of Maori landYS]

During 1864 and 1865, pressure to open the plains for settlement mounted. Opening the Provincial Council in June 1865, McLean tried to reassure councillors that despite the political turmoil of the times, he was responding to their concerns:[29]

In fulfilment of the desire expressed by you during the last session, I have done all in my power to acquire for purposes of settlement the agricultural lands ofthe Ahuriri Plains.

By early 1865, several parts of the plains were targeted or under negotiation. Replying to questions raised by McLean, Ormond stated:[30]

About Karaitiana and the Waipureku plains: I should say close at once for the place at the rental you name for 21 years - and if possible get Pakow[h]ai as well before it is snapped up by someone else- £4 or £500 a year would not be out of the way for these Pakow[h]ai plains.

In the end the Provincial Council's proposal won out. One factor was that by mid-1865 the political situation in Hawke's Bay had changed dramatically. During 1864 and early 1865, the political and religious turmoil stirred by the arrival of the Pai Marire movement exacerbated old leadership rivalries and threatened discord within Maori communities. Following the military defeat ofPai Marire adherents in the East Coast and Wairoa, and the Volkner murder in March 1865, government demands for Maori to take sides and demonstrate loyalty took on a harder edge. At the same time, the reduced proceeds from fewer land sales cut back the financial resources available to the chiefs and their communities. [31]

28 Colonial Secretary to Superintendent, 22 February & 4 October 1864, Correspondence having reference to the illegal occupation of the Ahuriri Plains... , HBVP 1865; Cowie, Hawke's Bay, pp 63-4. British government assent to the 1862 Native Lands Act, and thus to the waiver of Crown pre-emption, was proclaimed on 6 June 1863, but the Act was not brought into general operation until 29 December 1864. The Ordinance itself was finally repealed by the 1865 Native Lands Act, which came into force on 30 October 1865. 29 Address of His Honor the Superintendent on Opening the Provincial Council, 13 June 1865, HBVP 1865. 30 Ormond to McLean, 4 January 1865, McLean Papers, MS-Papers-0032-0481, ATL. 31 Wright, Hawke's Bay, pp 81-2; Cowie, Hawke's Bay, pp 102-5.