Summary of Historical Background to the Claims by Ngati Tama

From the late 1840s, as pressure mounted to accommodate settlers on land, opposition from Taranaki Maori to sales north and south of New Plymouth became more evident. Despite this, the Crown continued to attempt to purchase land. Resistance to the survey of the Pekepeka block at Waitara in 1860 by opponents of the sale was deemed an act of rebellion by the Crown and the Crown commenced hostilities in the province. During the course of these campaigns, which continued in North Taranaki until 1865, the Crown established military redoubts on Ngati Tama waahi tapu at Pukearuhe Pa and Waiiti.

In 1865 the Crown declared three confiscation districts in Taranaki under the New Zealand Settlements Act of 1863. Despite the fact that the fighting had not extended into the rohe of Ngati Tama 74,000 acres (29,970 hectares) was taken from the southern portion of their ancestral lands. Confiscations were indiscriminate with land being taken from "rebels" and "loyals" alike.

The compensation process for confiscated land provided for in the confiscation legislation was inadequate and ignored customary forms of land tenure. None of the compensation awards had been implemented by 1880 and the Crown appointed the West Coast Commissions in the 1880s to remedy this situation and to fulfil Crown promises.

Ngati Tama people supported the acts of passive resistance organised by prophets Te Whiti and Tohu in response to the confiscations and lack of reserves. In 1881 the Crown invaded Parihaka, in central Taranaki, with armed Crown troops numbering more than 1500. Some 1600 men, women and children were expelled from the settlement, crops were burned and homes destroyed.

Ngati Tama suffered further in 1882 when the Native Land Court ruled that Ngati Tama did not retain an interest in two large blocks of land north of the confiscation line. This ancestral land was lost to Ngati Tama.

The West Coast Commissions finalised the return of limited land to iwi in Taranaki in the mid-1880s. The amount of land awarded to Ngati Tama was small, of poor quality and insufficient for their needs. The land returned was done so under individual title and placed under the control of the Public Trustee. Much was farmed by settlers under perpetually renewable leases. Title amalgamation in 1963 meant owners no longer had specific interests in customary land but a proportional interest in reserves throughout Taranaki. By 1974, because of the ability of the Public and Maori Trustees to alienate certain types of land, over 60% of reserved Taranaki land originally vested in the Public Trustee had been sold and a further 26% was under perpetual lease.

The subsequent investigation of the confiscations by the Sim Commission of 1926-27 was limited and did not fully investigate the return of land, wahi tapu and other taonga. The Commission recommended an annuity of £5000 to compensate all Taranaki iwi for the confiscations and a single payment of £300 for the loss of property at Parihaka. These recommendations were not discussed with the iwi concerned by the government of the day and were never accepted by the iwi as adequate. The sums due in the early 1930s were not fully paid.

The compensation was enshrined in the Taranaki Maori Claims Settlement Act 1944 which states that Maori had agreed to accept the sums as full settlement of claims relating to the confiscations and Parihaka. There is no evidence Ngati Tama or other iwi agreed to this and the settlement sums, as with the rents on reserved lands, were not protected from the effects of inflation. As a result of various Crown actions and decisions of the Courts, Ngati Tama were left with very little land and none in tribal ownership.