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Difficulties of the Commission Defining Urewera Blocks by Hapū

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A Separate Authority (He Mana Motuhake), Volume I

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Abstract

This chapter pursues some of the difficulties that emerged in the investigation due to the misleading popular assumption included in the 1896 Act that a Māori hapū is aligned with a particular territory. Specific difficulties examined include radical changes in the number and identification of hapū over several years, procedural compromises and precedents set in the first block investigation, the following resolution to expedite hearings that was to cause problems in the coming years, and an aborted plan to amalgamate the 35 blocks into which the reserve had been divided into only 10 larger blocks. The resulting confrontations and resolutions clarified the actual structure and dynamics of Māori hapū, at least in this historical context and among Tūhoe. Close examination of the prolonged Waipotiki case supported the conclusion of the previous chapter that investigative procedures were largely under the control of Tūhoe leaders outside formal hearings and the resulting block lists preserved important details of hapū social organization that might have otherwise been lost.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Chief Judge Jackson Palmer, ‘Decisions under Sect 50 affecting the Urewera Native Reserve’, 9 October 1912. National Archives, Wellington: Department of Māori Affairs (MA series) Blocks of Land (special files) MA 13/90 Special File 227.

  2. 2.

    For a history of Rūātoki block, which at different times set it apart from the rest of the Urewera Native Reserve, see Oliver (2002), Fraser (2002), and Kruger (2004). The background for Whaitiripapa block will be reviewed in Chap. 5.

  3. 3.

    While the commission saw themselves as ‘grouping’ blocks, I use the term ‘amalgamation’ to emphasize the virtually completed form of the block orders. The term has also become established with this meaning regarding Māori land reorganization since the 1960s and, as mentioned in the Introduction, in the 1970–1980s major amalgamations were problematically carried out on the remnants of Tūhoe lands in the Urewera.

  4. 4.

    Binney’s discovery of new evidence is very important and confirms my own earlier conclusions that Apirana Ngata, against the will of the General Committee and its chairperson Numia Kererū, forced the inclusion of Rua Kenana and his supporters onto the committee so that with his influence the government could begin to purchase UDNR lands through it (Webster n.d. [1984–5]). Also see Binney 1997: 127; 125 fn 37. By 1915 the government illegitimately began its campaign to purchase from individual owners. The resulting wound between Tūhoe supporting Rua’s Iharaira and those against them still festers.

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  1. Social Anthropology, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

    Steven Webster

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Webster, S. (2020). Difficulties of the Commission Defining Urewera Blocks by Hapū. In: A Separate Authority (He Mana Motuhake), Volume I. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41042-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41042-1_3

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