Toa (Maori Warrior)

History of the AOTEA SCIENTIFIC RESERVE The Sandhills By Owen Wilkes (3)

The land which now makes up the Aotea Scientific Reserve was originally known as the Oioroa land block, and was sold to the Government well before the Land Court was established.

Title to the Manuaitu-Aotea block, of which Oioroa was originally part, was investigated by the Land Court in 1887, and the minutes of this investigation constitute the main available english language source of information about how the block happened to pass into Crown ownership so early.

The following notes are based mainly on these minutes, preserved as Waikato Minute Book 16. Page refs to this minute book in the text are preceded by "MA" for Manuaitu-Aotea.

The minutes are quite hard to interpret, for a number of reasons. To start with, they are handwritten and therefore often hard to read, and there is considerable variation in the spelling of names of both people and places.

The main problem in the minutes, however, is that they only record the evidence presented - ie the statements of witnesses and their answers during cross examination. Since we don't know what the questions were, it is often hard to see the significance of the answers, and it is necessary to "read between the lines" in an almost literal sense.

At the 1887 title investigation the entire block was claimed by descendants of the original pre-Waikato inhabitants. Their claim, based on ancestry, gift and permanent occupation, was presented at the Court by Pouwharetapu and other witnesses.

There were several counterclaims by the descendants of the Waikato invaders, led by Wiremu Te Wheoro and others. The latter claimed that the claimants had been decisively defeated 60 years previously, and had not maintained continuous occupation since, although they had been allowed back to participate in mission activities.

The counterclaimants cases were based on conquest and occupation. The Court found that no claims were adequately established by conquest, ancestry or gift, and that occupation was the best criterion.

It awarded the major part of the block to Ngati Naho...the southern part to Ngati Mahanga...and the eastern part to Ngati Te Wehi, all counterclaimants...continue on Aotea Scientific Reserve