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RANGITĀNE O MANAWATU and THE TRUSTEES OF THE RANGITĀNE O MANAWATU SETTLEMENT TRUST and THE CROWN - DEED OF SETTLEMENT OF HISTORICAL CLAIMS

This map is based on a half-scale copy (dated 1860) of JT Stewart's 2 inches to 1 mile survey of 1859. By GL Adkin, Nov 1956.

Te Ahuaturanga Block 1956. https://manawatuheritage.pncc.govt.nz/item/1c16d29e-3fde-4d0f-b96a-c4b22c8f54ff.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

2.1 The Crown’s acknowledgements and apology to the settling group in part 3 are based on this historical account.

Rangitāne o Manawatu Before 1840

2.2 Rangitāne o Manawatu trace their origins back to Whātonga, one of three rangatira who commanded the Kurahaupō waka as it sailed from Hawaiki to New Zealand. After landing at Nukutaurua, a small bay on Māhia Peninsula, Whātonga eventually settled at Heretaunga in Hawke’s Bay. Whātonga and his second wife Reretua had a son called Tautoki, who married Waipuna, a great granddaughter of the navigator Kupe. Rangitāne o Manawatu take their name from the son of Tautoki, their eponymous ancestor Rangitāne.

2.3 The descendants of Whātonga explored the lower North and upper South Islands, and settled in Wairarapa, Te Whanganui a Tara, Wairau, and the Marlborough Sounds. A considerable number of Rangitāne continued to reside at Heretaunga.

2.4 In the sixteenth century two brothers, Tawhakahiku and Mangere, led a party of Rangitāne from Heretaunga to Manawatu. Initially they followed a route through Te Apiti (the Manawatu Gorge), as Whātonga had done during his exploration of the lower North Island. However, after meeting resistance from another iwi, Tawhakahiku and Mangere entered Manawatu via a route near the Pahiatua track, passing through what is now known as Aokoutere to settle along the Manawatu River.

2.5 As the Rangitāne o Manawatu population grew, they established pā, kainga, and mahinga kai sites along the Manawatu River and exerted control over resources in the area. Their customary rohe follows the Manawatu River, extending north as far as the Rangitikei River, from the Tararua and Ruahine Ranges to the West Coast, south to the Manawatu River mouth. A number of neighbouring iwi also had interests in parts of this area. Rangitāne o Manawatu pā and kainga included Hotuiti, Tokomaru, Paparewa, Raewera, Puketotara, Tiakitahuna, Te Kuipaka, Awapuni, Te Motu o Poutoa, and Te Wi.

2.6 Rangitāne o Manawatu lived largely peacefully until the 1820s, when musket armed iwi migrating from the north arrived in Manawatu. Rangitāne o Manawatu suffered disruption as a result of battles with the northern iwi and their movements into and through their area.

New Zealand Company Purchases and the Spain Commission, 1839-1844

2.7 The New Zealand Company was a private land-settlement company established in London in May 1839. In late August 1839 the British Government dispatched Captain William Hobson to negotiate with Māori for the cession of New Zealand to the British Crown. One of the instructions given to Hobson was to establish the Crown’s sole right to purchase land (pre-emption). The Company sent representatives to New Zealand ahead of Hobson to purchase the land it desired before pre-emption was established.

2.8 In October 1839, the Company entered into the Kāpiti deed of purchase with another iwi. Through this deed, the Company purported to purchase vast tracts of the upper South and lower North Islands, including the Rangitāne o Manawatu rohe. Rangitāne o Manawatu did not sign this Company deed.

2.9 In January 1840 the Crown issued three proclamations. The third established preemption and announced the Crown would create a Commission to investigate earlier land transactions between Māori and private parties.

2.10 In May 1840 the Crown proclaimed sovereignty over the North Island of New Zealand based on the Treaty of Waitangi and over the South Island on the basis of discovery. Although Crown representatives took the Treaty to Manawatu in May 1840, it was not signed by Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira.

2.11 In September 1841 the Crown waived pre-emption in certain areas, including a defined area of Manawatu. The Company could then make additional payments to Māori in order to complete transactions it had begun before pre-emption was proclaimed. In February 1842, the Company signed a Deed of Purchase with another iwi at Te Papangaio pā at the Manawatu River mouth, conveying an area of land between the Tararua Ranges and the Rangitikei and Horowhenua Rivers. Rangitāne o Manawatu did not participate in the sale. When New Zealand Company surveyors arrived in Manawatu in early 1842 Rangitāne o Manawatu and another iwi objected to the survey. Rangitāne o Manawatu burnt down the surveyors’ huts.

2.12 In December 1841, Land Claims Commissioner William Spain arrived in New Zealand to investigate the Company’s land claims. In 1843 and 1844 Spain heard evidence from Company officials, European settlers, and other iwi about the Company’s Manawatu transactions. In 1872 a rangatira from another iwi testified that Commissioner Spain was told in 1844 that Rangitāne o Manawatu had not agreed to the sale of their lands and were not present when the lands were purportedly sold. Spain did not seek evidence from Rangitāne o Manawatu witnesses.

2.13 In his 1845 report, Commissioner Spain found the New Zealand Company’s claims in Manawatu failed aside from a 100 acre block at Horowhenua secured by way of further compensation, paid to other iwi in 1844. The Commissioner recommended, in light of the previous attempt to purchase the land, the Company be given a right of pre-emption to the lands between the Rangitikei and Horowhenua Rivers so that, with the permission of the Crown, they might complete the purchase at a later date.

2.14 There were no further land purchases in the Rangitāne o Manawatu rohe until the 1850s, by which time the Company had gone out of business. Nevertheless the Crown still considered itself responsible for providing land to settlers who had purchased land from the Company before it had purchased the land from Māori.

Crown Purchase of the Te Awahou Block, 1859

2.15 In 1858 legislation was enacted providing that settlers who held Company land orders in Manawatu would be entitled to be granted land in this region when Māori titles had been extinguished. In 1859 the Crown purchased approximately 37,000 acres in the Te Awahou block on the lower north bank of the Manawatu River. The chief who sold the land later agreed that others should have been included in the sale. As a result, some Rangitāne o Manawatu received a share of the purchase money from the vendors of the block. In 1873 the Native Land Court awarded some Rangitāne o Manawatu individuals 76 acres at Iwitekai, just south of Moutoa, which had been reserved from the purchase.

Te Ahuaturanga Purchase, 1864

2.16 In 1850 the Crown had initial discussions with Rangitāne o Manawatu regarding the acquisition of what became the Te Ahuaturanga block. However, no boundaries were discussed and negotiations did not resume until 1858. At this time, a Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira, Te Hirawanui Kaimokopuna, offered to sell the Te Ahuaturanga block, estimated by Crown officials to be 170,000 acres, to the Crown. Rangitāne o Manawatu wanted to encourage European settlement in northern Manawatu so they could participate in the developing settler economy.

2.17 The Crown purchase agent wanted to negotiate using a rough sketch of the block as a guide to the area under discussion. However, Te Hirawanui told the Crown agent that “before the land could be sold that it must be surveyed all round the Boundaries and then paid for at the rate of 30/- per acre – that [the] land was of immense extent and that it should not be sold in the dark.” Te Hirawanui understood that the Crown had already promised to have the land surveyed before sale.

2.18 The Crown refused to negotiate a per acre price for the land, and sought instead to negotiate on a lump sum basis. Negotiations for the sale broke down by late 1859, after Te Hirawanui rejected Crown offers of first £5,000 and then £6,000 for the block.

2.19 In 1862 the Crown, under the Native Lands Act 1862, established the Native Land Court to determine the owners of Māori land “according to native custom”, and to provide these owners with titles derived from the Crown. The Act waived the Crown’s right of preemption, allowing the owners identified by the Native Land Court to sell their land “to any person or persons whomsoever.”

2.20 The Crown still wanted to acquire land to pass on to settlers who held New Zealand Company land orders in Manawatu. The Crown therefore exempted a defined area of Manawatu, including the Te Ahuaturanga and Rangitikei-Manawatu blocks from the operation of the 1862 Act. The exemption of these lands from the 1862 Act meant the Native Land Court did not have jurisdiction to investigate land ownership in Manawatu, and only the Crown could purchase Rangitāne o Manawatu land.

2.21 In April 1862, the Governor authorised the superintendent of the Wellington Provincial Council to purchase land on behalf of the Crown and, in 1863, the Crown resumed negotiations for Te Ahuaturanga with Rangitāne o Manawatu. The Crown purchase agent told Rangitane o Manawatu that he considered the previous Crown offer of £6,000 ‘insufficient’ and promoted the benefits of rapid Pākehā settlement ‘provided that the Reserves were ample and well selected’. The Te Ahuaturanga deed of sale was signed on 23 July 1864 and transferred approximately 250,000 acres to the Crown. The purchase price of £12,000 was paid to Rangitāne o Manawatu on 19 August 1864. The Te Ahuaturanga block extended from just north of present day Tokomaru to the headwaters of the Oroua River, bounded to the east by the Tararua and Ruahine Ranges and to the west by the Oroua River to just above Feilding, then cutting a line just west of the Taonui Stream and across the Manawatu River.

Te Ahuaturanga Reserves

2.22 At the outset of the Te Ahuaturanga negotiations the Crown instructed its purchase agent to be on guard against Rangitāne o Manawatu requests for high prices and large reserves, and to urge them to sell as much land as possible. In September 1858 a Crown purchase agent proposed that 5,000 acres be set aside as reserves. However, after meeting Rangitāne o Manawatu at Puketotara on 27 October, he reported that ‘we arranged anew the reserves, reducing them very much in extent’.

2.23 The Crown surveyed the reserves over a year later, in November 1859. They totalled 2,570 acres. At the request of Te Hirawanui the Crown set aside a 200 acre reserve at Wairarapa, on the west bank of the Pohangina River. The other reserves were at Te Wi, 650 acres on the west bank of the Manawatu River near Raukawa Pā; at Hokowhitu, 890 acres on the west bank of the Manawatu River between the river and the northern end of Papaioea clearing; and at Te Kairanga, 830 acres on the east bank of the Manawatu River.

2.24 The Te Ahuaturanga deed of 1864 attached a plan showing the boundary of the land sold, and the boundaries of the reserves for Rangitāne o Manawatu. The reserves were not described in the body of the deed.

2.25 The Crown issued grants to Rangitāne o Manawatu for these reserves between 1873 and 1879, after the Native Land Court had determined their ownership. At the request of Rangitane o Manawatu rangatira the Hokowhitu reserve was subdivided into seven sections between Rangitane o Manawatu hapū and awarded to 54 individuals. A further 43 Rangitane o Manawatu people were registered by the Native Land Court, under section 17 of the Native Lands Act 1867, as having an interest in the reserve. The Te Wi and Wairarapa reserves were granted to 3 and 8 people respectively.

2.26 The location of reserves caused much discontent for Rangitāne o Manawatu for several years after the Te Ahuaturanga sale, as they excluded wāhi tapu such as Raukawa Pā, Awapuni lagoon and kainga, Te Motu o Poutoa, Maraetarata and Tiakitahuna. In 1866 Rangitāne o Manawatu sought unsuccessfully to have the Crown include Raukawa Pā and Awapuni lagoon in their reserves.

2.27 In November 1866 the Wellington provincial government auctioned the first sections of the Te Ahuaturanga block. Sections were offered at higher prices than the shilling per acre the Crown paid Rangitāne o Manawatu two years earlier. Between 1866 and 1873 Rangitāne o Manawatu participated in auctions of the Te Ahuaturanga block to reacquire several of their kainga. Their acquisitions included 105 acres at Awapuni (which became a principal settlement of Rangitāne o Manawatu until the 1920s and the site of their marae Kikiwhenua); 168 acres at Karere (including Tiakitahuna kainga), 100 acres on the Manawatu River opposite Tiakitahuna, and small plots in the town of Palmerston North. In 1879 Hoani Meihana told the Native Land Court that he purchased Tiakitahuna ‘on behalf of the people’. While Rangitāne o Manawatu repurchased some wāhi tapu, other sites of significance such as Raukawa Pā were sold to settlers and not subsequently repurchased.

Papaioea Clearing

2.28 The Papaioea clearing, later the site of Palmerston North, was located within the Te Ahuaturanga block. It had been the pā site of the Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira Rakaumaui and was a significant site for Rangitāne o Manawatu.

2.29 In August 1865, after the sale of Te Ahuaturanga, Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira, Kerei Te Panau and Huru Te Hiaro, proposed that a part of the Papaioea clearing be made a Rangitāne o Manawatu reserve so that their land at Hokowhitu could be adjoined to Papaioea and held ‘in one piece’. They proposed exchanging the reserve at Te Wi for land at Papaioea. The Crown did not act on the proposal. This was likely because the Crown had identified Papaioea as a good site for a township. In late 1866 the Wellington Provincial government began auctioning the Papaioea land.

2.30 In 1867, the Crown did not consult with Rangitāne o Manawatu before purchasing 71 acres of the Papaioea clearing from the Wellington provincial government so that it could be given to another iwi as part of an exchange including land outside Manawatu. The block, located in central Palmerston North, is now valuable commercial and residential real estate.

Rangitikei-Manawatu Purchase, 1866

2.31 From the 1840s, Rangitāne o Manawatu, alongside other iwi, leased out large tracts of land between the Rangitikei and Manawatu Rivers to settlers. In 1863 a dispute arose among several iwi, including Rangitāne o Manawatu, over the distribution of rental proceeds from leases of around 80,000 acres between the Rangitikei and Manawatu rivers. The Crown intervened when the dispute threatened to escalate into armed conflict.

2.32 In 1863 the Crown held hui with the three principal iwi party to the dispute, including Rangitāne o Manawatu. At these hui Crown agents offered to refer the dispute to the Governor or to resolve the matter through arbitration. However, neither solution could be agreed upon by all parties. At a hui on 16 January 1864 one of the iwi with interests in the block offered the land for sale to the Crown. On 27 January 1864, the superintendent of Wellington province secured agreements from all parties that rents from the block would be suspended until the dispute was settled. Rangitāne o Manawatu and another iwi favoured arbitration to resolve the disagreement, and wrote to Governor Grey and the superintendent protesting the proposed sale of the land.

2.33 At a hui with the superintendent and a number of other rangatira at Whārangi in October 1864, Hoani Meihana, a Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira, consented to the sale of the block. However other Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira were not present.

2.34 In 1865 the Native Lands Act 1862 was repealed and replaced by the Native Lands Act 1865. The new legislation retained the clause excluding the Manawatu block from the operation of the 1862 Act. As before, the land could only be acquired by the Crown, and the Native Land Court had no role in determining its customary ownership.

2.35 Late in 1865 the superintendent travelled to Manawatu and met with Rangitāne o Manawatu and the other iwi with interests in the block. He said to a rangatira of another iwi that the exclusion of the block from the Act prevented what he called the “farce” of a Native Land Court investigation, given its ownership was so strongly disputed. At a meeting at Puketotara Te Peeti Te Awe Awe, a Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira, told the superintendent he had not attended the Whārangi hui in October 1864 where the chiefs agreed to sell the land. Te Awe Awe said that he refused to sell and that he wanted the rents to be released because Rangitāne o Manawatu were “living upon” them. Hoani Meihana repeated his preference to sell the Rangitikei-Manawatu block, but opposed the further sale of any land east of the Oroua River, later known as the Aorangi block, saying that:

2.36 We must keep it as a reserve for our children, and for their children after them. We must have it partitioned and get Crown grants for it. My determination to sell is confined to the disputed lands.

2.37 The Superintendant offered to distribute the suspended rents if the involved iwi could reach a unanimous decision on their release and division, but no consensus was reached.

2.38 In April 1866 representatives of the three principal iwi in the dispute met to discuss terms of sale. Te Peeti Te Awe Awe and Kerei Te Panau now consented to the sale on behalf of Rangitāne o Manawatu. The price agreed for the block was £25,000, and the superintendent called upon the iwi to determine the division of the money before signing a deed. Reserve areas would be determined on the completion of the purchase. Rangitāne o Manawatu believed the purchase money should be divided equally and paid directly to the three principal iwi in the block with their share given to Te Peeti Te Awe Awe.

2.39 When the iwi gathered at Parewanui on 5 December 1866, the allocation of the purchase money had not been agreed. Before the hui the superintendent outlined to the Native Minister a proposed division of the purchase money that would have given Rangitāne o Manawatu £5,000. At the Parewanui hui, Rangitāne o Manawatu expressed their preference for an equal distribution of the purchase money among the three principal iwi. When this was not agreed to, Rangitāne o Manawatu supported a further proposal which would have seen them receive £5,000. No consensus could be reached for this proposal either. After lengthy discussions Rangitāne o Manawatu informed the superintendent that they had entered an arrangement with one of the other principal iwi. This iwi would represent Rangitāne interests and allocate them a share of the purchase price.

2.40 The deed of sale for the approximate 241,000 acre block was signed at Parewanui on 13 December 1866. Approximately 96 Rangitāne o Manawatu signed the purchase deed. The Crown paid £15,000 of the purchase money to the iwi from whom Rangitāne o Manawatu had arranged to receive payment. Rangitāne o Manawatu received only £600 despite having consistently sought at least £5,000 for their interests.

Rangitikei-Manawatu Reserves

2.41 No reserves were defined in the Rangitikei-Manawatu deed, despite the Native Minister’s recommendation that they be included, in line with established practice. The purchase had been completed on the basis that reserves would be allocated after sale. However, in the years following the sale, the provision of reserves to Rangitāne o Manawatu from the Rangitikei-Manawatu block became intertwined with their protests over the payment of the purchase money.

2.42 In January 1867 a large gathering of Rangitāne o Manawatu met with the superintendent at Puketotara Pā, extremely angry with their share of the payment from the RangitikeiManawatu sale. Rangitāne o Manawatu sought his assistance in securing what they considered their full share of the purchase money. Te Peeti Awe Awe requested the superintendent to “make good the loss” by giving Rangitāne o Manawatu a reserve of 3,000 acres at Puketotara. The superintendent said that he sympathised with Rangitāne o Manawatu, but refused to intervene in the dispute. He offered Rangitāne o Manawatu a 1,000 acre reserve at Puketotara as compensation. The superintendent also indicated that the government had identified a site where a township could be established within the reserve. He suggested Rangitāne o Manawatu establish the town themselves for their own benefit.

2.43 Rangitāne o Manawatu initially refused the offer of 1,000 acres and repeated their request for 3,000 acres. In March 1867, however, Te Peeti Te Awe Awe accepted the offer of 1,000 acres at Puketotara. The memorandum of agreement signed by Te Awe Awe and the superintendent assigned the 1,000 acres as a ‘tribal reserve’ and included a provision that gave the Crown the right to build public roads through the reserve. The Puketotara reserve did not end Rangitāne o Manawatu protests and over the following decade they unsuccessfully petitioned the Crown on more than twelve occasions to have their concerns about the purchase payments addressed and a further payment made.

2.44 The conclusion of the purchase left the matter of the rent that had been suspended since 1864. In November 1869, the superintendent, acting as land purchase commissioner, reported that, unable to reach an agreement, the vendors of the Rangitikei-Manawatu block resolved to leave the apportionment of the suspended rents, totalling £4,699, in his hands. Rangitāne o Manawatu wanted the rents to be apportioned equally. When the Crown distributed the rents in late 1869 Rangitāne o Manawatu received £525, rather than the equal share they sought. The land commissioner told Rangitāne o Manawatu that £300 of the payment represented compensation for what the Crown considered the unfair payment they received for the Rangitikei-Manawatu purchase.

2.45 In November 1870, Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira sought an additional 10,000 acres of reserves in lieu of the £4,400 they said had not been received from the RangitikeiManawatu purchase. The Minister of Native Affairs conceded that Rangitāne o Manawatu appeared to “have suffered great loss.” He awarded further reserves. These included a further 1,100 acres at Puketotara for the “Rangitane tribe,” 100 acres on the west bank of the confluence of the Oroua and Manawatu Rivers (that included Puketotara pā), and three small sections to individuals along the west bank of the Oroua River totalling 56.5 acres and covering urupā and eel fisheries. Hare Rakena Te Awe Awe had not consented to the sale, and was awarded a 500 acre reserve at Puketotara. In 1871 the Minister of Native Affairs described the greater portion of the reserves he created for Māori in the Rangitikei-Manawatu block as being composed of “sand hills, swamp, and broken bush”.

2.46 Between 1871 and 1874, Rangitāne o Manawatu sought, unsuccessfully, to have the Crown increase the size of their Oroua River reserves. One of the reserves encompassed 35.5 acres on the bank of the Oroua River and included part of the lagoon at Te Awa a Pūnoke, which was an important eel fishery for Rangitāne o Manawatu. 1872 Hoani Meihana asked the Native Minister to add old cultivations at Te Awa a Pūnoke to the reserve. The Crown declined this request after a Crown surveyor was unable to find any cultivations and considered the area Hoani had identified to be about 1,000 acres. In 1874 the Crown declined a request by Hoani to expand the reserve to include the whole lagoon.

2.47 In the mid-1870s Rangitāne o Manawatu continued to feel aggrieved over the RangitikeiManawatu sale and felt their claims had not been satisfactorily addressed by the Crown. As European settlement on the Rangitikei-Manawatu block neared areas of Rangitāne o Manawatu occupation, some Rangitāne o Manawatu individuals began to obstruct the survey and development of the land.

2.48 In 1876 Rangitāne o Manawatu opposed the survey and drainage of a large block of land encompassing a number of swamps and lagoons, including Te Awa a Pūnoke. Rangitāne o Manawatu occupied the block in protest. Hoani Meihana told a Crown official that Rangitāne o Manawatu were “anxious lest the Awapunoke be drained and their eels thereby be destroyed.” A Crown official commented sympathetically that “every attempt to drain [the swamps] has been opposed by the Natives, who argue with some show of reason that to open out these swamps would destroy the object for which these reserves were made”.

2.49 Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira Hoani Meihana and Te Peeti Te Awe Awe linked the protest and occupation to their wider grievance over the money paid to Rangitāne o Manawatu in the Rangitikei-Manawatu purchase. In 1877 the Crown laid charges against two Rangitāne o Manawatu individuals who had occupied the disputed block but later dropped the prosecution and the survey proceeded.

2.50 In the late 1870s the Crown granted Hoani Meihana 1,473 acres adjacent to the Rangitane o Manawatu reserve at Puketotara in recognition of the grievance over the draining of Te Awa o Pūnoke. This grant generated protest among other members of Rangitane o Manawatu who considered that the land should be the property of the whole iwi for their remaining grievances over the Rangitikei-Manawatu sale.

2.51 Rangitāne o Manawatu continue to believe they were inadequately compensated by the Crown for the loss of their land in the Rangitikei-Manawatu block.

Rangitāne o Manawatu and the Taranaki Campaign, 1866-1869.

2.52 Rangitāne o Manawatu, like some other iwi, voluntarily joined the native military contingent in 1866 at the request of the superintendent of Wellington province. Under the command of Major General Trevor Chute and Major Kemp they fought in the Taranaki Campaign and in the 1868-1869 campaign against Titokowaru. 2.53 The Crown recognised the contribution of Rangitāne o Manawatu in these wars by awarding Te Peeti Te Awe Awe a sword of honour and the Tanenuiarangi Flag. Rangitāne o Manawatu believe their rangatira fought in order to protect their remaining land from alienation.

Rangitāne o Manawatu and the Native Land Court

2.54 From the late 1860s to the early twentieth century, land in Manawatu which had not already been purchased by the Crown passed through the Native Land Court. The Native Land Court, under the Native Lands Act 1865, was to determine the owners of Māori land “according to native custom” and to convert customary title into title derived from the Crown.

2.55 The native land laws introduced a significant change to the Māori land tenure system. Customary tenure was able to accommodate multiple and overlapping interests to the same land, but effective participation in the post 1840 economy required clear land boundaries and certainty of ownership. The Native Land Court was not designed to accommodate the complex and fluid customary land usages of Māori within its processes, because it assigned permanent ownership. In addition, land rights under customary tenure were generally communal but the new land laws tended to give rights to individuals, instead of hapū and iwi.

2.56 The Crown aimed, with these measures, to provide a means by which disputes over the ownership of lands could be settled and facilitate the opening up of Māori customary lands to Pākehā settlement. It was expected that land title reform would eventually lead Māori to abandon the tribal and communal structures of traditional land holdings.

2.57 Under the native land laws individuals could submit claims to the Court without reference to their whānau or hapū. If awarded title by the Court, individuals held that title as their own property. They were free to dispose of their title, subject to the various native land acts. It was not until the 1894 that legislation provided for title to be held by iwi as corporate bodies.

2.58 The Native Lands Act 1867 gave the Governor discretion to refer claims to the Rangitikei-Manawatu block to the Native Land Court. However, claims could only be received from persons who had not signed the 1866 Deed of Sale. As most Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira had signed the Deed of Sale, they were prevented from bringing claims regarding the Rangitikei-Manawatu block before the Native Land Court.

2.59 However, from the late 1860s through to the early twentieth century, Rangitāne o Manawatu rangatira participated widely in Court investigations of ownership for other Manawatu land. In total, the Native Land Court awarded Rangitāne o Manawatu owners almost 12,000 acres, primarily in the Aorangi, Taonui–Ahuaturanga, and Tuwhakatupua blocks.

2.60 After the large Crown purchases of the 1860s, Rangitāne o Manawatu sought to retain their remaining lands acquired through the Native Land Court for their own support. In 1873, shortly after the title hearing of the Aorangi block where Rangitāne o Manawatu were awarded the southern portion (Aorangi 3), Hoani Meihana informed the superintendent of Wellington province that:

2.61 Rangitane’s portion [of Aorangi] is 5,200 acres. This is my word to you. I will never consent to the sale of this piece, it must be left for maintenance for ourselves and children. If the Government purchase I will never give my consent to sell.

European Settlement and the Alienation of Remaining Land

2.62 By the end of the 1880s Rangitāne o Manawatu held approximately 20,000 acres in reserves from Crown purchases, land they had been awarded by the Native Land Court, and land they had repurchased in the Te Ahuaturanga block. After acquiring the Rangitikei-Manawatu block, the Crown made few further purchases from Rangitāne o Manawatu. In 1876, the Crown purchased a small strip of land across the Aorangi 3 block for the Foxton Light Railway. In 1890 the Native Land Court awarded the Crown 300 acres from the same block to pay its survey costs. In 1897 the Crown purchased the 1,026 acre Tuwhakatupua 1A block on the southern bank of the Manawatu River.

2.63 From the early 1870s the Crown assisted significant numbers of European settlers to immigrate and settle in the upper Manawatu. In 1870 a block of 3,000 to 4,000 acres was made available to settle Scandinavian immigrants near Rangitāne o Manawatu settlements at Awapuni and Te Wi. Large virgin forests and swamps such as Taonui, Makurerua and Moutoa, which once provided a rich resource to Rangitāne o Manawatu, became over time fertile farmland and towns. The arrival of these settlers and the development of rural and urban areas in Manawatu brought many changes to Rangitāne o Manawatu and their rohe. As the region’s agricultural economy developed, settlers and speculators began purchasing land from Rangitāne o Manawatu. From the late nineteenth century private purchasing accounted for the alienation of the majority of the remaining land of Rangitāne o Manawatu.

2.64 Except to a limited extent at Puketotara, the Rangitāne o Manawatu reserves in the Te Ahuaturanga and Rangitikei-Manawatu blocks were too small and fragmented to sustain either traditional subsistence or modern agriculture. The four original Te Ahuaturanga reserves had been leased out by Rangitāne o Manawatu to generate income for hapū and whānau. On their wooded Hokowhitu reserve, Rangitāne o Manawatu had entered into a joint venture with a European sawmilling company. By 1900 these reserves had all been sold to private interests, along with most of the land that had been repurchased. Reasons given for selling the Hokowhitu reserve included the erosion of the block by the Manawatu River and to pay debts owed to the Crown on the Aorangi 3 block. The effect of these sales was to leave only a small area of land in Rangitāne o Manawatu ownership in the core of their traditional rohe.

2.65 During the 1880s and 1890s, the Native Land Court partitioned much of the land it awarded Rangitāne o Manawatu in the Aorangi and Taonui-Ahuaturanga blocks, into smaller blocks which were then sold by their owners. This included over 2,500 acres of Aorangi 3 which was located in the middle of the Taonui swamp, away from road and rail lines.

2.66 By 1900 over 10,000 acres in total, more than half of the remaining land held by Rangitāne o Manawatu had been alienated.

2.67 The Puketotara reserve (two blocks totalling 2,178 acres) remained intact until the early twentieth century. In 1876 Te Peeti Awe Awe and Hoani Meihana had title to Puketotara issued, under the Rangitikei-Manawatu Crown Grants Act 1873, to ten grantees who acted as trustees on behalf of 100 owners. This arrangement lasted until 1902 when a case was brought before the Native Land Court to establish ownership of the Puketotara reserves beyond the ten original grantees. As a result, in 1904 the number of owners to

Puketotara was greatly expanded. Between 1908 and 1920 many of the new owners sought to partition out their individual interests, resulting in the Native Land Court ordering as many as 74 partitions. During the twentieth century most of the Puketotara reserve was sold.

2.68 Between 1900 and 1910 the number of private purchases fell dramatically. After 1910 this trend was reversed; over the next twenty years Rangitāne o Manawatu alienated, by way of private sales, 3,756 acres. By 1930 Rangitāne o Manawatu landholdings had been reduced to 2,903 acres. The remaining land was gradually eroded by further sales until the area of land owned by the iwi fell below 1,000 acres by 1990.

Conclusion

2.69 The Crown’s purchases prior to 1866 left Rangitāne o Manawatu with very little land. Further Crown purchases and private sales of reserves left Rangitāne o Manawatu virtually landless by the early twentieth century. In spite of their social and economic marginalisation, Rangitāne o Manawatu have continued to contribute extensively to the cultural and economic development of Palmerston North and the Manawatu Region.

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND APOLOGY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

3.1 The Crown acknowledges that until now it has failed to address the longstanding grievances of Rangitāne o Manawatu in an appropriate way. The Crown hereby recognises the legitimacy of the historical grievances of Rangitāne o Manawatu and makes the following acknowledgements.

3.2 The Crown acknowledges that when it investigated the New Zealand Company claims in Manawatu in 1843-1844, it did not seek the views of Rangitāne o Manawatu about the transactions affecting their land.

3.3 The Crown acknowledges that between 1859 and 1866 it acquired most of the land in which Rangitāne o Manawatu held customary interests by purchasing over 500,000 acres in the Te Awahou, Te Ahuaturanga and Rangitikei-Manawatu blocks.

3.4 The Crown acknowledges that when it opened negotiations for the Te Ahuaturanga block, Rangitāne o Manawatu sought to have the boundaries of the block surveyed and the purchase conducted on a price per acre basis, but the Crown was only prepared to offer a lump sum payment for the land under negotiation.

3.5 The Crown acknowledges that:

3.5.1 in 1865 and 1866, after the sale of the Te Ahuaturanga block, it declined requests from Rangitāne o Manawatu to have sites they used and occupied, such as Raukawa Pā and Awapuni lagoon, included in their reserves;

3.5.2 between 1866 and 1873 Rangitāne o Manawatu re-purchased several hundred acres of Te Ahuaturanga land, including wāhi tapu and kāinga; and

3.5.3 when purchasing the Te Ahuaturanga block the Crown failed to adequately protect the interests of Rangitāne o Manawatu by ensuring that adequate reserves were set aside for Rangitāne o Manawatu and this failure was in breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.

3.6 The Crown acknowledges that:

3.6.1 it did not act on a proposal by Rangitāne o Manawatu in 1865 to add land from the Papaioea clearing to their reserve at Hokowhitu in exchange for their reserve at Te Wi;

3.6.2 in 1867 it purchased land from the Papaioea clearing for individuals from another iwi; and

3.6.3 this purchase has remained a considerable grievance for Rangitāne o Manawatu to the present day.

3.7 The Crown acknowledges that:

3.7.1 the manner in which it conducted its purchase of the Rangitikei-Manawatu block in 1866, including not defining reserves prior to the purchase deed being signed, gave rise to one of the deepest grievances of Rangitāne o Manawatu; and

3.7.2 Rangitāne o Manawatu repeatedly sought redress from the Crown following the sale for what Rangitāne o Manawatu considered an insufficient payment and the Crown’s response to those requests failed to alleviate this major grievance for Rangitāne o Manawatu. In particular, reserves created by the Crown in response to Rangitāne o Manawatu protests did not fully encompass those areas Rangitāne o Manawatu wanted to retain. As a consequence, the Rangitikei-Manawatu purchase has remained a major source of bitterness for Rangitāne o Manawatu down the generations to the present day.

3.8 The Crown acknowledges that the operation and impact of the native land laws on the remaining lands of Rangitāne o Manawatu, in particular the awarding of land to individual Rangitāne o Manawatu rather than to iwi or hapū, made those lands more susceptible to partition, fragmentation, and alienation. This contributed to the erosion of the traditional tribal structures of Rangitāne o Manawatu. The Crown failed to take adequate steps to protect those structures and this was a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.

3.9 The Crown acknowledges that:

3.9.1 by 1900 over half of the land still available to Rangitāne o Manawatu for their support and maintenance following the Te Ahuaturanga and RangitikeiManawatu purchases had been alienated, including much of their reserved land from those blocks;

3.9.2 by 1992 only a fraction of the former lands of Rangitāne o Manawatu remained in their ownership;

3.9.3 the cumulative effect of the Crown’s acts and omissions, including the Te Ahuaturanga and Rangitikei-Manawatu purchases, the operation and impact of the native land laws, and private purchasing has left Rangitāne o Manawatu virtually landless; and

3.9.4 the Crown’s failure to ensure that Rangitāne o Manawatu retained sufficient land for their present and future needs was a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles. This hindered the social, cultural and economic development of Rangitāne o Manawatu as an iwi. 3.10 The Crown acknowledges that its actions have undermined the ability of Rangitāne o Manawatu to access many of their traditional resources, including rivers, lakes, forests, and wetlands. The Crown also acknowledges that Rangitāne o Manawatu has lost control of many of their significant sites, including wāhi tapu that they wished to retain, and that this has had an ongoing impact on their physical and spiritual relationship with the land.

APOLOGY

3.11 The Crown recognises the struggles of the ancestors of Rangitāne o Manawatu in pursuit of redress and justice for the Crown’s wrongs and makes this apology to Rangitāne o Manawatu, to their ancestors and to their descendants.

3.12 The Crown is deeply sorry that it has not always lived up to its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi in its dealings with Rangitāne o Manawatu and unreservedly apologises to Rangitāne o Manawatu for its breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.

3.13 The Crown sincerely apologises for the cumulative effect of its acts and omissions which left Rangitāne o Manawatu virtually landless. The Crown greatly regrets that on a number of occasions it failed to protect Rangitāne o Manawatu interests when purchasing land in their rohe. By 1866 Rangitāne o Manawatu had been alienated from many of their traditional kainga, taonga and wāhi tapu, and were left with insufficient reserves. Despite the efforts of Rangitāne o Manawatu to retain and reacquire these lands, many have been lost forever. The Crown is deeply remorseful about the lasting sense of grievance its acts and omissions have caused Rangitāne o Manawatu.

3.14 The Crown profoundly and deeply regrets that over the generations the Crown’s breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi undermined the social and traditional structures of Rangitāne o Manawatu, and compromised the autonomy and ability of Rangitāne o Manawatu to exercise its customary rights and responsibilities.

3.15 The Crown deeply regrets its failure to appropriately acknowledge the mana and rangatiratanga of Rangitāne o Manawatu. Through this apology and by this settlement, the Crown seeks to atone for its wrongs and begin the process of healing. The Crown looks forward to re-establishing its relationship with Rangitāne o Manawatu based on mutual trust, co-operation, and respect for the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.

SETTLEMENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

4.1 Each party acknowledges that -

4.1.1 the other parties have acted honourably and reasonably in relation to the settlement; but

4.1.2 full compensation of the settling group is not possible; and

4.1.3 the settling group intends their foregoing of full compensation to contribute to New Zealand’s development; and

4.1.4 the settlement is intended to enhance the ongoing relationship between the settling group and the Crown (in terms of the Treaty of Waitangi, its principles, and otherwise).

4.2 The settling group acknowledge that, taking all matters into consideration (some of which are specified in clause 4.1), the settlement is fair in the circumstances.

SETTLEMENT

4.3 Therefore, on and from the settlement date, -

4.3.1 the historical claims are settled; and

4.3.2 the Crown is released and discharged from all obligations and liabilities in respect of the historical claims; and

4.3.3 the settlement is final.

4.4 Except as provided in this deed or the settlement legislation, the parties’ rights and obligations remain unaffected.

REDRESS

4.5 The redress, to be provided in settlement of the historical claims, –

4.5.1 is intended to benefit the settling group collectively; but

4.5.2 may benefit particular members, or particular groups of members, of the settling group if the governance entity so determines in accordance with the governance entity’s procedures. Rangitane-o-Manawatu-Deed-as-Initialled-1-May-2015.Pdf. 1 May 2015, p. 47, https://www.govt.nz/assets/Documents/OTS/Rangitane-o-Manawatu/Rangitane-o-Manawatu-Deed-as-Initialled-1-May-2015.pdf.

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