An Unpromising Deal

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 26

An Unpromising Deal Negotiations on the part of the settlers continued for some time until finally the Crown, by virtue of an Agreement of Sale, dated the 13th of February 1896, acquired the lakelands known as Wairarapa Moana. The Maori owners received £2,000 and a promise of some land. It took until 1916 before an area of 30,486 acres of the Pouakani Block along the Waikato river, was actually handed over. At the time this block of land seemed valueless. There were no roads and much of it was covered with virgin bush, its nominal value was 4/- an acre. Many owners felt that living so far away Lake Onoke is opened by tractors making a channel through the sand from the lake to the sea, (Courtesy: Wairarapa Catchment Board.) Piripi Te Maari was one of the chief opponents of the opening of Lake Onoke. This photograph is from an old Pirinoa School magazine. Te Maari belonged to its foundation school committee. they were never likely to use the land and it would be much wiser to sell it at the first opportunity, so that the 139 original lake owners, or their successors, would receive their shares in cash. Consequently, when New Zealand Perpetual Forests made overtures for the purchase of the block at £25,000 the majority of the owners, at a meeting held in Greytown on 4th July 1930, agreed

Farmers of the future: Rangi Murphy and Andrew Namara on Tui Te Maari's farm, (Forestry Service Photograph.) to sell the block. There was however, a formality which needed the approval of the Minister of Maori Affairs, the Hon. A. T. Ngata. Here the Wairarapa owners struck an unexpected difficulty. Ngata, with the land settlement scheme in full swing delayed the sale until the block had been inspected for its land development prospects. The inspection report was strongly negative, “The farming possibilities are poor … the climate cold and bleak … much too costly to fence and manure … not much chance of the timber being milled for many years.” Nevertheless Apirana Ngata was not satisfied and decided to visit the land himself before giving a decision. The sale never took place. Perhaps Ngata was influenced by reports becoming current in 1930 that scientists were on the track of a cure for the soil deficiencies on the volcanic plateau. It was only after the cure was found (that is the addition of cobalt to fertiliser) that stock rearing on Pouakani became a possibility.