Story: Te Arawa

Land Court meeting at Tamatekapua

Land Court meeting at Tamatekapua

This group of men in the Tamatekapua meeting house, Ōhinemutu, are likely to be at a Māori Land Court meeting, around 1890. Judge F. D. Fenton is presiding at the centre of the table, while Resident Magistrate Captain Gilbert Mair is sitting at the left of the table. Fenton and Mair were instrumental in negotiating with Ngāti Whakaue for the government to lay out a spa town at Rotorua. As a token of their cooperation, Ngāti Whakaue presented the carving Pūkaki to the Crown. They assumed that they would still retain ownership of the land and be involved in its development. However, the government sidelined them. In 1993 a Treaty of Waitangi settlement with Ngāti Whakaue was signed by the government as reparation for 100 years of grievance.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: F-43266-1/2

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

All images & media in this story

How to cite this page:

Paora Tapsell, 'Te Arawa - European impact', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/1543/land-court-meeting-at-tamatekapua (accessed 29 March 2024)

Story by Paora Tapsell, published 8 Feb 2005, updated 1 Mar 2017