Ngai Tahu Land Report

15 Rakiura

15.2 Background to the Purchase

15.2.1 Rakiura was the scene of a great deal of Maori-European contact. During the first decade of the nineteenth century vessels involved in the sealing industry operated in Foveaux Strait. Although there were occasional fracas between Ngai Tahu and these sealers, relations were generally good and many European men married Ngai Tahu women and began families. In the mid-1820s a semi-permanent settlement of these families was established with Ngai Tahu consent on Whenua Hou, the largest of Rakiura's off-shore islands.

Sealing was in decline in the 1820s but the rise of the shore-whaling industry meant that the Foveaux Strait area continued to see a significant amount of traffic during the 1830s. In addition to shore-whaling ventures, Rakiura became the summer home of many whalers and their families. By the mid 1830s a sizeable community had grown up around "The Neck" on the eastern peninsula of Paterson's Inlet.

On 5 June 1840, Major Bunbury landed at the uninhabited harbour at Point Pegasus (Zephyr Bay) and proclaimed British sovereignty. Four days later his ship left for the island of Ruapuke where several Ngai Tahu chiefs, including Tuhawaiki, signed the Treaty of Waitangi.

15.2.2 In a letter dated 21 December 1854 an offer was made by Topi Patuki, the principal representative of Rakiura Ngai Tahu, to gift the Titi Islands to the Queen (U3:20).{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.2|1} The offer had one important condition attached to it. Patuki wished retain exclusive rights to the titi. He expressed concern about the plundering of titi by strangers. The tone of the letter suggests that this desire to secure access to the titi and to stop European ravagement of the resource may have been the principal concern motivating the offer. In her report on Rakiura, Deborah Montgomerie stated that Patuki's letter is one of the clearest indications we have of a belief on the part of Ngai Tahu that the transfer of legal title to land to the Crown could be compatible with the retention of tribal rights to mahinga kai (U3:4). However, nothing appears to have come of the offer as Mantell, in his capacity as commissioner of Crown lands, seems to have made a decision not to relay the offer to the Queen.

15.2.3 While the Titi Islands and the titi may have been Ngai Tahu's major concern in the area, the large land mass and its timber made the question of ownership of Rakiura more significant to European administrators. The first official approach from Ngai Tahu to the government over the possible sale of the island to the Crown was made by Patuki in 1860. He offered to sell the Crown a portion of Rakiura westward of the 168th degree of longitude (A8:II:53){FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.3|2}. According to Basil Howard, Patuki thought to retain the eastern portion of the island, as it contained all the populated area, the frequented harbours and the profitable timber zone. Howard suggested that increased European interest in Rakiura was related to Patuki's desire to sell the island.{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.3|3} There were already a number of established European settlers on the island and an increasing demand for secure land titles, particularly for sawmilling operations (A8:II:53){FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.3|4}. On 10 May 1861, Patuki wrote to the government stating that he did not wish Europeans to locate themselves on the island.{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.3|5} Yet in another letter dated later that month he repeated his offer to sell the island to the Crown.{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.3|6}

15.2.4 The Crown faced a number of obstacles in expediting the Rakiura sale. Macandrew, the Otago superintendent who had been the prime mover behind the purchase within the Otago provincial government, had been removed from office. The cession of Southland from Otago complicated matters, as did the northern war and the instability of government ministries.

In this period, the problems with European encroachment on Rakiura seem to have continued to grow. In 1863 the native secretary, Francis Dillon Bell, urged the government to purchase Rakiura, as he considered the government might find itself in difficulty in consequence of unauthorised transactions from people "unlawfully occupying and dealing with portions of land in the island" (A8:II:53-54).{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.4|7} At least one of these transactions was recognised by Patuki as binding. In November 1863 he informed the government that he had entered into an arrangement with certain Europeans for the sale of a portion of Stewart Island (U3:5-6).

By this time the government had already decided to purchase Rakiura and Bell proposed that somebody should be appointed immediately to do so. He informed his ministers that Rakiura was not formally annexed to any province, but that it naturally belonged to Southland. He proposed to introduce legislation to annex the island to Southland, arguing that it was quite immaterial whether the island was ceded or not at the time, as the Queen's sovereignty existed over it under the Treaty of Waitangi (A8:II:53-54).{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.4|8} In December 1863 the Stewart Island's Annexation Act was passed. This move does not seem to have prejudiced the interests of the Maori owners of the island, being merely an expression of the Queen's sovereignty. Maori title to the area was not affected.

15.2.5 In September 1863, Theopilus Heale, the chief surveyor of Southland, was asked to negotiate the purchase as soon as possible. His instructions were detailed. He was to:

ascertain and make a list of all the natives, such as Topi [Patuki], and others who are immediately interested as owners of the land in Stewart's Island, determining and defining what right they have, either generally or individually, to any and to what portions of the island and from what date their claims originate respectively. (A8:II:54){FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.5|9}

It is not clear when the decision was made to attempt to purchase the entire island rather than the western portion offered by Patuki, or at what point it was decided to attempt to include the offshore islands. Heale's instructions show that the government had decided to attempt to purchase the whole of Rakiura. They do not explicitly mention the Titi Islands. The instructions also show there was a clear intention to provide an endowment for the vendors and not simply make a one-off payment. Regarding the payment, Heale was to:

offer as the purchase price of the land a certain sum to be paid at once, and a certain proportion-not exceeding one third-of the proceeds of future sales or leases of Crown lands in the island, on the understanding (to be explained to the sellers) that of the one-third so reserved, two-thirds will be spent for the benefit of the tribe by trustees to be appointed by the governor; and the remaining third to be distributed annually to Topi, Paitu, and the heirs of Tuhawaiki. (A8:II:54){FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.5|10}

With the change of government in October 1863, it would seem that Heale was replaced in his commission to purchase Rakiura. This was placed in the hands of Henry Tacy Clarke in February 1864. In accepting his commission Clarke was to follow the instructions issued to Heale. Further, he was to adjudicate those land claims between Europeans and Ngai Tahu that were still outstanding. No specific instructions were given to Clarke regarding the making of reserves, nor were the Titi islands mentioned (A8:II:54-55).{FNREF|0-86472-060-2|15.2.5|11}