The two men who pioneered logging operations of the Puketapu 3A Incorporation: Left, Toriwai Piwa Jones, and right, the late Walter Ngarue Jones. Both were Maori All Black footballers and golf champions. Walter was killed in a tragic accident with a logging truck. After much hard bargaining, the chief executives of the incorporation succeeded in selling all mills, factories and other properties—among them some the Kauri Timber Company did not really want very badly—and getting a price of £135,000 for them, not much below the original estimate. Kauri bought them because they needed the bush in order to keep up with their own competitors. The timber-cutting rights were disposed of for 25/- per 100 H.D. of totara and 14/- other species. The whole deal will realise an estimated £1,135,000. This money will be ample to develop all the farm lands of the incorporation and settle them as individual farms, as well as distribute a good deal of money from year to year to beneficiaries for a very long time to come. Immediately after the deal, £107,700 was distributed to owners—at £600 per share—and the rest of the down payment was invested in land development. To add to its land resources, the owners decided to buy a property in the Awakino East district, called Matai station. This 1600-acre farm, complete with 3823 sheep and 471 cattle, cost them £55,000. The idea behind this buy was to find other assets to replace those which had been sold to the Kauri Timber Company. Thus the famous £1 million deal has not merely meant the enrichment of the individual shareholders: the incorporation as a tribal business venture has been kept alive on much the same scale as before, with an intended annual investment of £25,000 on land development, out of the royalties paid from year to year by the Kauri Timber Company.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE INCORPORATION The Puketapu 3A Incorporation has benefited the members of the Tuwharetoa tribe in many ways. First of all, the distributions to shareholders have totalled £380,356, to which the latest distribution of £107,700 should be added. This money has helped many of the owners to improve their lot. Some have bought logging trucks, timber transport trucks, taxis or farms with their royalties and thus set themselves up in business. Many have used the money to build themselves houses or pay off housing mortgages. As a result of the distributions, most of the owners now live in good conditions and in good financial circumstances. A second important effect of Puketapu's success has been to encourage the formation of other Maori timber incorporations such as Hauhungaroa 2C, Hauhungaroa 1D2, Hauhungaroa 2D1 and Hautu. These groups naturally benefited from the experience of the Puketapu committee of management. To some extent the incorporation has also helped the people by providing employment. Two Maori logging companies are working fulltime on the felling of the Puketapu bush. These are the Tamaiwhana Logging Co., run by the Jones brothers, and the Moerangi Logging Co., operated by Paterika Hura. These are independent of the incorporation, but Puketapu owns the excellent workers' houses in the settlement. These were built by arrangement with the State Advances Corporation under a hire purchase agreement specially provided for timbermills; the workers' rentals are very reasonable. There is however not very much occasion for the incorporation to provide employment for its members, as 80% live outside the district and most of the others have good permanent employment. Finally, the Puketapu experience has been valuable in the confidence it created in the ability of a Maori corporate body to succeed in a most difficult commercial enterprise. If successful, incorporations have a big part to play in the utilization of Maori land. There is no reason why they shoud not increasingly do so, as long as the leadership is strong and the people are prepared to forego immediate advantage for the sake of long-term benefits.