New Zealand land confiscations

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The New Zealand land confiscations took place during the 1860s to punish the Kīngitanga movement for attempting to set up an alternative, Māori, form of government that forbade the selling of land to European settlers. The confiscation law targeted Kīngitanga Māori against whom the government had waged war to restore the rule of British law. More than 1,200,000 hectares (3,000,000 acres) or 4.4 percent of land were confiscated,[1] mainly in Waikato, Taranaki and the Bay of Plenty, but also in South Auckland, Hauraki, Te Urewera, Hawke's Bay and the East Coast.[2][3][4]

Legislation for the confiscations was contained in the New Zealand Settlements Act 1863, which provided for the seizing of land from Māori tribes who had been in rebellion against the government after 1 January 1863.[5][6] Its stated purpose was to achieve the "permanent protection and security" of the country's inhabitants and establish law, order and peace by using areas within the confiscated land to establish settlements for colonisation, populated initially by military settlers enlisted from among gold miners at Otago and the Colony of Victoria (Australia).[7] Land not used by for military settlers would be surveyed and laid out as towns and rural allotments and then sold, with the money raised to be used to repay the expenses of fighting Māori. According to academic Dr Ranginui Walker, this provided the ultimate irony for Māori who were fighting to defend their own land from European encroachment: "They were to pay for the settlement and development of their lands by its expropriation in a war for the extension of the Crown's sovereignty into their territory."[1]

Although the legislation was ostensibly aimed at Māori tribes engaged in armed conflict with the government, the confiscations showed little distinction between "loyal" and "rebel" Māori tribes,[7][8] and effectively robbed most Māori in the affected areas of their land and livelihood.[2] The parliamentary debate of the legislation suggests that although the confiscation policy was purportedly designed to restore and preserve peace, some government ministers at the time saw its main purpose to be the acceleration and financing of colonisation.[7] Much of the land that was never occupied by settlers was later sold by the Crown. Māori anger and frustration over the land confiscations led to the rise of the messianic Hauhau movement of the Pai Mārire religion from 1864 and the outbreak of the Second Taranaki War and Tītokowaru's War throughout Taranaki between 1863 and 1869. Some land was later returned to Māori, although not always to its original owners. Some "returned" areas were then purchased by the Crown.[9]

Several claims have been lodged with both the Waitangi Tribunal and the New Zealand Government since the 1990s seeking compensation for confiscations enacted under the Land Settlement Act. The tribunal, in its reports on its investigations, has concluded that although the land confiscation legislation was legal, every confiscation by the government breached the law, by both failing to provide sufficient evidence there was rebellion within the designated areas and also including vast areas of land, such as uninhabitable mountain areas, which there was no prospect of settling. Submissions by the Crown in the 1999 Ngāti Awa investigation and a 1995 settlement with Waikato-Tainui included an acknowledgement that confiscations from that tribe were unjust and a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.[10] Ten deeds of settlement were signed by the Crown and iwi in 2012,[11] concluding with a $6.7 million redress package to a Waikato River iwi for "breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi that left the tribe virtually landless".[12]

  1. ^ a b Ranginui Walker, Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou – Struggle Without End, Penguin Books, 1990.
  2. ^ a b Taranaki Report, Kaupapa Tuatahi, Chapter 1, Waitangi Tribunal, 1996.
  3. ^ Michael King (2003). The Penguin History of New Zealand. Penguin Books. p. 216. ISBN 0-14-301867-1.
  4. ^ Keith Sinclair, A History of New Zealand, Penguin, 2000, page 146 ISBN 0-14-029875-4
  5. ^ "New Zealand Settlements Act 1863 (27 Victoriae 1863 No 8)" (PDF). Archived from the original on 11 August 2020 – via NZLII.
  6. ^ Belgrave, Michael (2005). Historical Frictions: Maori Claims and Reinvented Histories. Auckland: Auckland University Press. p. 265. ISBN 1-86940-320-7.
  7. ^ a b c The Taranaki Report, Kaupapa Tuatahi, Chapter 5, Waitangi Tribunal, 1996.
  8. ^ "The Ngati Awa Raupatu Report, chapter 1, Waitangi Tribunal, 1999". Archived from the original on 7 February 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  9. ^ Boast, Richard (22 September 2012). "Te tango whenua – Māori land alienation". Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  10. ^ "Ngati Awa Raupatu Report, chapter 10, Waitangi Tribunal, 1999". Archived from the original on 17 March 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  11. ^ Kate Shuttleworth, "Crown signs settlement for historical Treaty claims", The New Zealand Herald, 20 December 2012.
  12. ^ Elton Smallman, "Tribe welcomes end to grievance", Waikato Times, 20 December 2012.