A history of resumption: how Ātihau beat the odds in 120-year battle

It is the shameful story of repeated Crown and lessee attempts to alienate Māori land that was vested in good faith in the Aotea District Māori Land Council by thousands of landowners to protect it from the Government and settler farmers at the turn of the twentieth century.

Above all, and against all odds, it is a story of achievement and success, with 38,500 hectares now back in the hands of shareholders.

Key to the drive to resume control of the vested lands is a process called resumption, which simply describes the action of an authority (in this case, Ātihau-Whanganui Incorporation) to regain possession of lands or rights previously granted to another (in this case, lessee farmers with long-term leases).

The story begins with Crowndecorated soldier Taitoko Te Rangihiwinui (Major Kemp), who fought for the Crown against Māori between 1865 and 1871.

By 1880, his views had changed and he was urging Māori not to sell their land. “If you sell your land,” he said, “you will become slaves.” In the 1890s he penned letters urging Native Affairs Minister James Caroll and Premier John Ballance to protect Māori land for Māori, and in 1897 Caroll met with Whanganui Māori at Pākaitore to discuss the issue. Te Rangihiwinui is credited with the words ‘Māu e Timi, te mōrehu tangata, te mōrehu whenua’ (To you, James, I leave the remnants of the people, and the remants of the land).

The solution offered was the Māori Lands Administration Act 1900, which created the Aotea District Māori Land Council made up of two Crown and three landowner representatives, and a meeting at Jerusalem in 1902 which proposed vesting the following blocks in the Council to protect them: Morikau 2, Whitianga 2, Waharangi 1, 2, 4, 5, Whakaihuwaka 1, 2, 3, Ohotu 1, 2, 3, 8, Ngarakauwhakarara, Puketotara, Poutahi, Urewera, and Ngapakihi. By 1904, Whanganui Māori had vested 115,000 acres in the Council in 326 lots. The Council grouped lots together to make up an area to be leased and settled for farming.

When the vested lands were offered for settlement, the Council immediately came under pressure from the Crown to change the lease terms to include perpetual right of renewal. Māori council members refused, but new lease terms were agreed in 1904 setting leases at 21 years with a right of renewal for a further 21 years. Rent was based on the unimproved value of the land. To resume the land after the expiry of a lease, the landowner would have to compensate the lessee for any improvements.

Despite this, pressure for perpetual leases continued unabated and led in 1905 to the Council being disbanded and replaced by an Aotea District Māori Land Board comprising three Government appointees, only one of whom was required to be Māori. These new arrangements meant that more than 100,000 acres of Whanganui Māori land were now held under radically different conditions to those under which the land had been vested.

By 1907, virtually all the Aotea Vested Lands had been leased. In 1913, the Boards were reduced to two members, both of whom were officers of the Native Land Court, removing the requirement for Māori representation.

The first leases expired and were renewed in the 1920s under a new valuation method which disadvantaged landowners. Following decades of petitions to the Crown, a Royal Commission investigated the changes in 1951, finding that rent payments were now insufficient to cover the cost of the compensation required to resume the land. The Crown agreed to finance the cost of compensation but did not honour this commitment. In 1952, the Māori Trustee replaced the Aotea District Māori Land Board.

In 1955, the Morikaunui Incorporation was formed when land was released from Government control to 2500 owners. The founding chairman was Te Rangitākuku Metekingi. In 1960, the Māori Trustee resumed Ohorea, a 4000-acre area of Ohotu 1C2 and an advisory committee representing owners was formed to work with the Māori Trustee to oversee the farm.

Te Rangitākuku proposed in 1962 that the owners consider amalgamating the Ohotu block and in 1964, Ohorea owners met with the Department of Māori Affairs to discuss the return of Ohorea to the owners’ control. The Whanganui Vested Lands Advisory Committee was established soon after, made up of members of the Ohorea Advisory Committee, and in July 1964 a meeting in Ohakune decided to amalgamate all the vested blocks, later to include Ohorea Station and be named “Ātihau-Whanganui Vested Land Block”.

The Māori Land Court directed in 1967 that an amalgamation order be issued with all of the lands to be held in common ownership under one equitable title by all the owners of the lands.

Following the example of Morikaunui leadership, a meeting of 700 owners at the Whanganui Opera House in 1969 resolved unanimously to incorporate, and later that year the ĀtihauWhanganui block was revested in the 4000 beneficial owners and an order of incorporation was made. Ātihau-Whanganui took over full administration the following year, including the running of Ohorea Station, rent collections and administration of about 200 leases.

Ohorea was at the heart of the first Committee of Management’s plans to methodically resume more land as leases expired. The first ĀtihauWhanganui Inc farm station would set the pace of the resumption programme, with profits from the farm helping to fund further resumptions.

In his first report to shareholders in 1970, Te Rangitākuku announced the committee’s plan to resume 4000 acres in the Ōruakukuru valley known as the McGregor and Malpas properties. The Wilson’s property was added to the plans the following year, and in 1975 nearly 9000 acres was resumed, to be run as the Tawanui and Ōmerei stations.

In 1990, Ngāpuke and Pah Hill were resumed followed in 1994 by Te Paenga, and then Ohotū and Tohunga in 1999. Waipuna was resumed in 2004, Papahaua in 2005, Hapuawhenua in 2006 and Te Kōwhai and Operiki in 2014.

This year, the incorporation resumed a further two blocks between Koroniti and Matahiwi, totalling 2679 ha (see story opposite). The latest resumptions bring 38,500 ha of 42,000 ha of total land ownership under Ātihau-Whanganui Inc management, with only about 3500 ha left to be resumed at a later date.