ADDRESS TO THE CROWN ON BEHALF OF
NGATIKAHU KI WHANGAROA
Nga kaupapa tuku iho no nga Whanau, Hapu me te
Iwi o
Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa
E rere ra nga tau mahue kau mai Te Rehutai i aku kamo
Whakaangi aku Maunga Korero - Maunga Karioi – Maunga Koiwi o aku Tupuna
Ka huri ki te Akau – Tu ana Horoiwi – Ka rere whakarunga Id te Paa o Otanga
Ka tae ki Te Whatu – Ko Muriwai kei uta Tiro ana i Te Ripo o te muru a te Waiti
Taku Toko Tu Tangata Tu Mana Kore ana – Tu mokemoke mai i te Maru o te Kohu
He Owati tenei ka whai tonu atu – Ki a Hoki mai koe Id te Iwi o Ngatikahu ki
Whangaroa eeii
Nga kupu whai korero i roto i tenei tuhituhi, na nga kaumatua me nga kuia i te wa e ora tonu ana ratou. Nga tau ko pahure, tahi mano iwa rau waru te kau tau, te timatatanga mo tenei take whenua. (1980) E whakaaro aroha tenei ki a ratou ko ngaro atu ki te kohu kawe wairua tangata. Nga mamae me nga roimata aroha ko mahue mai hei oranga mo matou, o koutou tamariki me nga mokopuna, hipoki tia mai matou Id te korowai tapu o te tika, te pono, te aroha me te whakaiti ake tonu. Ma te Atua te Tamaiti me te Wairua Tapu tatou e whakatapu e manaaki ake ake, ake tonu atu.
My sadness is that I did not know that we ever owned our land.
Our Tupuna knew it and grieved over our Whenua but I did not.
I think that I was a lot like most of our people.
It was not until I spoke to Kaumatua Teddy Emery, late 1979, that he told me of his grief.
He interested me by saying that we, Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa iwi owned thousands of acres of land. and that we had title to the land.
He did not know how it was taken from us, only that it had been.
He was right.
We used to have Pakeha Title to 3,990 acres, which was surveyed off and took it to Judge Manning, Native Land Court Judge, at the Haruru Land Court sitting in Paihia. Judge Manning granted us Pakeha title on the 24 March 1870.
It was granted to 10 of our people to hold on behalf of us all.
The survey boundary line commenced at Motukukupa, Motukukupa ki Whakaangi, Whakaangi ki Paiaka, Paiaka ki Akatere, Akatere ki Horoiwi.
At Whangarei MLC, I found that title amongst some old Maori Land Court records, which was used as backing paper for other documents. Written over the title was the word "Cancelled". The land was taken away from us by an Act of Parliament, Taemaro and Waimahana Grants Act 1874. This Act took the land from us, 3990 acres, and gave back the current reserves we have today — 99 acres at Taemaro and 649 acres at Waimahana.
That took away our Pakeha title.
But we had already lost the land which we had occupied generation upon generation prior to the coming of the settlers.
Our people did not know how this had happened because it was done without our knowledge. How this happened has become known to us through the records which have been kept by the Crown. This is our grievance. The land went by stealth. It went without consultation.
What records we have found of the ways used by the Crown to take away our land?
We have found:
1. Old Land Claims: There are documents which early settlers drew up before TeTiriti was signed. The settlers came from England where land was bought and sold and traded. That was not the system we used but the early settlers drew up deeds where they hoped to buy thousands of acres for a few blankets, tobacco, shotguns, some clothing and other items that attracted the eye of the Maori. These deeds should not have had any effect since they were not part of any system of legal rights recognized in Aotearoa at that time.
2. Te Tiriti itself: The Crown used TeTiriti as authority to set up a system where the Crown could declare ownership to land so that it could be bought, sold and traded. The Crown declared it was the only body that could purchase land. This set the scene for the loss of our land.
3. Crown Purchases: The Crown set about buying as much land as it could to on sell to settlers. It sent officers around the country to buy land from Maori. They did not take great care to see whether they were consulting with all who had an interest. Maori, unlike the English, had an overlapping interest in land. Our tribal relations shared certain overlapping rights for the purpose of harvesting seafood or sharing in the cropping of the land, although their major rights was established elsewhere.
4. 1840 Crown Purchases: In 1840 shortly after Te Tiriti was signed the Crown paid Nopera Panekareao of Te Rarawa 100 Pounds for land stretching from Kaitaia across and past our Rohe. We knew nothing of this.
5. 1841 Crown Purchase: In 1841 the Crown paid Pororua Wharekauri 100 Pounds for land stretching through our Rohe and towards Kaitaia. We knew nothing of that.
6. 1843 Crown Land Commissioner, Edward Godfrey: The Crown decided that it should recognize as valid title some of the deeds the earlier settlers had prepared, provided they were considered fair. The Crown appointed commissioners to listen to evidence from the Maori and from the early settlers. They assumed (wrongly) that Maori had understood this new concept of ownership and trade in land. In 1843 Commissioner Godfrey came to hear Maori and Pakeha settlers at Mangonui. He did not get far in his hearing as 400 Te Rarawa and Ngapuhi warriors gathered in the tiny township to ensure that their rights are respected. Godfrey recognized the explosive nature of the situation and withdrew without resolving anything and recommended to the settlers that they should also leave, to get land elsewhere. In fact, not many did.
7. 1848: A new Resident Magistrate, William Bertram White, was stationed by the Crown at Mangonui. Nopera Pankareao of Te Rarawa had at that time moved to live near Taipa at Oruru. White had access to the Deeds, which had been signed between Te Rarawa and the Crown and Ngapuhi and the Crown. White thought that our Land had been purchased by the Crown. We did not know this at the time.
8. 1857 — 1863: Crown Land Commissioner Francis Dillon Bell reinvestigated private Pakeha land claims in the Mangonui area. In his report of 8th July 1862, Bell considered the documents which were prepared before 1840 to be valid to pass title to land claimants. However, he considered that the payments made by the land claimants were insufficient to justify all of the land, which they claimed. Bell found a surplus of 11.000 acres where he considered Maori had been "underpaid" Rather than return that surplus to Maori, he recommended it should go to Crown.
9. 1863 Crown Mangonui Purchase: The history, as we know it starts here. The Crown at its previous attempts at land purchase had not dealt with us. In 1863 one of our whanaunga, Poni, owed a debt of 100 Pounds. We know this since our Tupuna have recorded this, and have handed it on to us. The area we agreed to sell was a small one. The negotiations took place atop of maunga Paiaka, situated today in the heart of Stoney Creek Farm Station. We pointed out the land we agreed to sell, known as Te Kopupu. The Crown believed that they already owned most of the land. We knew nothing of that at that time. We sold a small area for 100 Pounds. Paeara and Poni signed the deed. This was the only transaction in which we were ever involved. Our history is therefore seen only from this time.
10. 1868 — 1870 Haruru Native Land Court Records: Until the Native Land Court system was introduced in mid 1860's the Crown was the only body which could purchase Maori Land. The Native Land Court allowed Maori to survey out and obtain Pakeha title to as much land as they could afford to survey. Maori were able to nominate 10 of their iwi representatives to take title, to hold in trust for all the iwi. Our Tupuna surveyed off 4,967, no doubt as much as they could afford, and applied to the Native Land Court for title.
11. Mr. White for the Court did not appear at this sitting. The area surveyed took in a large part of the 11,000 acres which Commissioner Bell had recommended should go to the Crown. Judge Manning has recorded our evidence as follows:
Part or whole of this land is claimed by the Crown but that there was no foundation for any such claim.
Judge Manning stated in his decision:
No one appears to oppose the claim on behalf of the Crown and the land is not marked on any plan in my possession as Crown Land
Judge Manning granted us Crown title 3,990 acres.
This land was lot less than the land we had originally occupied which had gone out of our hands without our knowledge or consent and without payment. Yet Mr. White went to huge lengths to reclaim it.
He tried to get the judgment of Judge Manning cancelled.
When this failed he made direct threats to Hemi Paeara's whanau hapu and those involved, with 27 years imprisonment if they did not hand back the Certificate of Title that they had obtained. The threats made are recorded in Hemi Paeara's petition, September 1892. Hemi Paeara, on behalf of his whanau, hapu and iwi of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa, wrote petitions on a yearly basis seeking redress and apology and the return of their ancestral land that had been wrongfully taken by the Crown. Hemi Paeara commenced his petitioning after the loss of the title until his death in 1918.
He talked of the loss of the bulk of our cultivation
He said:
The sacred places where our ancestors are buried have been taken from us in the land which has passed into the possession of the Crown
Hemi Paeara was talking here of the land taken by the Taemaro and Waimahana Grants Act 1874. However, more land than that was lost.
The land we occupied and cultivated for so many generations was gone, through Crown acquired purchases without any consultation with us.
The land we managed to preserve through the system of gaining Pakeha title, was taken away from us, gone forever, and in its place reserves were granted through the Taemaro and Waimahana Grants Act.
Where we exercised Mana Whenua, we no longer have any rights at all.
Our Tupuna described Resident Magistrate William Bertram White as a land-swallowing monster.
In Hemi Paeara's own written words to Parliament, 1892 Petition ............. kia rongo mai koutou e nga tini honore mema, i tae mai taua taniwha horo whenua, a te Waiti, ki
tetahi puke i te taha ki runga owiamahana nei ko paiaka te ingoa o taua puke..................
Mr. White represented the Crown. That is how our Tupana felt about the actions of the Crown. That is how many of us feel today.
Ko mutu ki konei nga korero tuku iho mea homai e nga kaumatua me nga kuia e te wa e ora tonu ana ratou. 0 ratou mamae me nga roimata me te aroha kei roto e nga kupu o te korero hoatu nei. No reira e nga matua me nga matua Tupuna, manaaki tia mai matou i tenei take, mo te oranga katoa o te whanau me te hapu me te iwi katoa o Ngatikahu ki
Whangaroa.
Mamaru te Waka
Parata te Tangata
i moe I a Kahukuraariki
Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa te iwi
Tihewa Mauri Ora
Te kai tuhi mo tenei pepa hitoria
[Signed]
Pita Pangari
Te tamaiti no - Anarina Ngamoni Hemi Roha Paeara me Kingi Told Aporo Pangari
Te tout o rtia ra o Tihema, te tau rua mono e rima