Ng¯ati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill

Preamble
Ngāti Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty)
Claims Settlement
New (unanimous)
Gazette 7 years later, in 1874, there was no mention of trustees.
Rather the blocks were officially awarded to the listed
individuals as grantees:
(23) Members of Te Tāwera hapū were granted land in the
Umuhika area, in accordance with an arrangement made by
Wilson, who noted that Te Tāwera had been major landholders
in the area prior to the war:
(24) In December 1867, the Compensation Court also awarded
10 individuals 50 acre blocks within the Rotoitipaku and
Tawhitinui blocks. All of these awards were made under
sections 4 and 6 of the Confiscated Land Act 1867, which
allowed the return of land to those considered by the Crown to
be ‘‘surrendered rebels’’:
(25) Wilson carried out his activities under the provisions of the
New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 and its amendments. The
Crown then enacted further legislation, including the Confiscated
Lands Act 1867, in order to validate Wilson’s
arrangements:
(26) While Ngāti Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) were granted some
land through the compensation process, they lost their customary
rights of access to other traditional lands and
resources:
(27) Land restored through the compensation process was returned
to individuals rather than to the hapū or iwi. The awards did
not reflect the customary forms of tenure and land became
more susceptible to partition and alienation:
Crown purchases
(28) In 1873, Crown land purchase agents began negotiating to
lease the Rotoitipaku and Tawhitinui blocks. Eight Ngāti
Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) men signed a deed of lease for
the blocks. Some of these men were listed as trustees for the 2
blocks in the schedules Wilson prepared of the compensation
awards:
(29) In 1874, after publication of the awards for the Rotoitipaku
and Tawhitinui blocks in the Gazette, it became clear that the
existing deed of lease did not have the appropriate signatories.
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