Te Rohe Pōtae Introduction

The agreed casebook research programme for the inquiry was confirmed in January 2008. The programme provides for six assistance projects and about 20 main research projects, the details of which are outlined in Wai 898, #6.2.7, which is available in the ‘document store’ section of the Te Rohe Pōtae inquiry page on this website. Parties to the inquiry can obtain a login and password to this document store from the Waitangi Tribunal’s librarian. Complete the ‘contact us’ section with your request on our home page.

Some projects will be/have been commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal and some by Crown Forestry Rental Trust. The Tribunal has commissioned two of the assistance projects: the Māori Land Court block index and the statistical overview of land alienation. Reports commissioned by the Tribunal to date are:

A two-volume Rangahaua Whanui overview report for the district, prepared by Cathy Marr for the Waitangi Tribunal in 1996, provides a useful introduction to the history of the area. Volume one, entitled The Alienation of Maori Land in the Rohe Potae (Aotea Block), 1840 - 1920, covers land alienations before 1860, the decision to 'open up' the Rohe Pōtae, the 'compact' with the government, Crown land purchasing in the 1890s, and alienations of Māori land between 1900 and 1920. Volume two, entitled The Alienation of Maori Land in the Rohe Potae (Aotea Block), Part 2: 1900 - 1960, covers Māori Land Councils and Boards, Māori land under leasehold, sales of Māori land, compulsory land alienations, consolidation and development schemes, and Māori responses to land alienations.

Jane Luiten has prepared a research guide to local Te Rohe Pōtae historical sources, which is available from the document store. Other research resources will be added to the document store as they are completed.

The Tribunal-commissioned research assistance projects, the Māori Land Court index and the scoping into statistical overview of land alienation, will shortly be distributed to parties to the inquiry.

Tribunal project briefs and commissions for these projects, and others, can be found in the ‘document store’.

The Tribunal held its fourth judicial conference on 6 June 2008. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the claims to be consolidated and aggregated in the Wai 898 Te Rohe Pōtae district inquiry. This process is now well advanced. Other issues discussed at the conference included the boundaries of the inquiry, the Crown’s intentions for research preparation and presentation in the inquiry and claimants’ preparation of traditional and oral evidence (see the memorandum-direction of Judge DJ Ambler following the conference, Wai 898, #2.5.32).