The Waitara Dispute

Crown and Te Teira vs Wiremu Kingi

Leading Te Ati Awa

• The Paramount Chief of Te Ati Awa was Wiremu Kingi

• Kingi had left Waitara during the Musket wars and while he was away, Teira Manuka had risen to a position of leadership in the hapu.

• Kingi returned to the area in 1848.

• There was considerable rivalry between Teira Manuka and Wiremu Kingi

Pakeha Settlers in New Plymouth

• Pakeha settlers in New Plymouth were very frustrated with the inability of the NZ Company to live up to their promises of providing a substantial amount of farm land.

• Their settlement also lacked a decent harbour.

• Land sales had dried up.

• The settlers looked enviously to the fertile Waitara Block with its natural harbour.

Governor Gore Browne

• Governor Gore Browne attended a hui of Taranaki tribes where Teira offers to sell him land in Waitara.

• Wiremu Kingi expresses opposition but Gore Browne is keen to assert Crown sovereignty.

Governor Gore Browne

• The land was communally owned and Teira doesn’t actually have the right to sell it.

• Gore Brown knew this but he still accepted Teira’s offer.

• He wanted to gain land and disempower Kingi so he exploited tribal divisions to achieve both aims.

Civil War within Te Ati Awa

• Kingi’s faction vs Teira’s faction

• Land holders vs land sellers

The Kohimarama Conference

• In 1860 as the Waitara Dispute raged, Gore Browne called a Conference of Maori leaders at Kohimarama in Auckland.

Why did Gore Brown call the Kohimarama Conference?

• He wanted a chance to discuss the Treaty and land claims with Maori.

• He hoped to divide Maori loyalties by gaining the chiefs’ condemnation for Kingitanga and the actions of Wiremu Kingi (neither Kingi nor Tawhiao were invited).

• He wanted to see how much support there was for Kingi and Tawhiao amongst Maori.

What happened at the Kohimarama Conference?

• Gore Browne threatened resisters, explaining that 7000 troops were on their way to Taranaki to be used against Wiremu Kingi and his supporters

• The meeting produced the Kohimarama Covenant in which signatories pledged to do “nothing inconsistent with their declared recognition of the Queen’s sovereignty… i.e reaffirmation of Article One.

Ranginui Walker on the Kohimarama Conference

• Those present showed that they shared a common understanding that the Treaty guaranteed their Rangatiratanga.

• Rather than condemning Wiremu Kingi, they maintained that Gore Browne shouldn’t have interfered in the Waitara Dispute

But…

• Maori promised to abide by the Treaty. Governor Gore Browne did not. He could have reaffirmed Maori rights under Articles Two and Three

• Once again, Maori had a different understanding of the Treaty they had just reaffirmed.– “Kawanatanga” was

not “Sovereignty”– “Rangatiratanga”