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Story: Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi

Māori land loss: South Island

  • 1844

    1844

  • 1848

    1848

  • 1849

    1849

  • 1854

    1854

  • 1856

    1856

  • 1857

    1857

  • 1859

    1859

  • 1860

    1860

  • 1864

    1864

Click on the buttons below this map to see how South Island land passed out of Māori ownership between 1844 and 1864. Most land was sold to the government in large parcels. Some of the officials who negotiated the sales later claimed that the Crown did not honour the guarantees it made to the sellers. These injustices formed the basis for Ngāi Tahu’s later claims under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi).

Using this item

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Reference: Bronwyn Dalley and Gavin McLean, Frontier of Dreams. Auckland: Hachette Livre NZ, 2005, p. 157

Source: Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1865, G-3.

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How to cite this page

Claudia Orange, Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi – Dishonouring te tiriti – 1860 to 1880, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/36363/maori-land-loss-south-island (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Claudia Orange, published 5 June 2012, reviewed and revised 28 March 2023 with assistance from Claudia Orange. It was translated into te reo Māori by Basil Keane.