The Muriwhenua Lands Case: Legal and Historical Issues

Abstract

Although this was not my first involvement in a Waitangi Tribunal case, it was the first time I have appeared as a witness rather than as counsel and in that sense it was a novel experience for me. In this short paper I would like to address some of the legal and historical issues that have arisen in this remarkably complex and interesting claim, and also to raise some more general points about the role of historians and historical evidence in an enquiry of this kind. Before proceeding to deal with either, some back-ground on the claim is necessary.

I first became involved in late 1990 when counsel for the claimants invited me to prepare and present a paper on the 'surplus lands' question. My brief was subsequently expanded to include a report on the legal history of Te Wharo Oneroa a To he (Ninety Mile Beach). which was presented in evidence at a sitting of the Tribunal at Kaitaia in March 1991, and another on two large Crown purchases, Muriwhenua South (1858) and Ahipara (1859) which was read at a hearing in July 1991 at the Ngai Takoto marae at Awanui. The surplus lands question has turned out to be more intractable than anyone ever supposed, and my report on this - one of many dealing with aspects of this rather involved subject - has only recently been completed (May 1992).