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owners in blocks of land. Those selected owners held the land as individuals and were able to sell the
land at their own discretion and for their own benefit. The first judge of the Maori Land Court,
Francis Fenton, drafted the 1865 Act that set up a formal court of record with salaried staff, surveyors,
judges, “native assessors” and district officers. The Court maintained exclusive and absolute evidence
and record of all individual tupuna, their whanau, hapu, iwi and tribal lands (Williams, 1989). From
1865, Ngati Hau and their lands were defined by a myriad of acts, amendments, supplements and
ordinances through the office of the Maori Land Court that facilitated and carried out the alienation of
native title.
The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and subsequent amendments validated the Treaty of Waitangi in
New Zealand legislation for the first time since its signing by Maori Chiefs, Rangatira and the Crown
in 1840. The act, the brainchild of Matiu Rata 2 created the Waitangi Tribunal to assist hapu and iwi
in the research of Treaty Claims (Durie & Orr, 1989). The registered and amended Ngati Hau Treaty
Claim WAI 246 is a small step toward addressing past land grievances.
A cooperative willingness and agreement by Ngati Hau is required to validate and corroborate with
confidence and authority, ancestral lands, tupuna, burial and cultivation sites, landmarks, boundaries,
rivers and sites of significance.
2 :”Karanga ra, e Rata, Te hiku o te ika e, whakaripo ake nei e”. “The clarion voice of Rata calls (Matiu Rata), the movement in the tail
of the fish responds” First verse of The Waitangi Tribunal‟s own waiata sung first at the Muriwhenua hearing at Te Hapua, December
1986 and subsequently elsewhere in response to a welcome (powhiri).
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