William Lee Rees was an Auckland lawyer who, in the 1880s, acted as an agent for East Coast land, together with a local Māori leader, Wī Pere. In 1891 Rees was appointed to a government commission of inquiry into Māori land law together with the MP for Eastern Māori, James Carroll, and Thomas Mackay, a former Land Purchase Officer. The Rees–Carroll Commission, as it was known, bitterly criticised the Native Land Court for granting Māori land title to individuals rather than iwi or hapū. The Māori-language version of its report is shown here.
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Reference:
Ripoata a nga Komihana i Whakaturia hei Whiriwhiri i nga Putake e pa ana ki nga Ture Whenua Maori. Wellington: Government Printer, 1891, p. 1
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