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Story: Land ownership

North Island land tenures, 1950

By 1950 much of the North Island was in freehold ownership. The exceptions were the mountainous areas where state forests or reserves were owned by the Crown and areas of the King Country and the East Coast that were still Māori land.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: MapColl 830ed 1950 6115

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.

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How to cite this page

Jim McAloon, Land ownership – Consolidation of land settlement, 1912–1950s, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/zoomify/17938/north-island-land-tenures-1950 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jim McAloon, published 1 March 2009.