The Social and Economic Situation

of Hauraki Maori

After Colonisation

THE HAURAKI TREATY CLAIMS

VOLUME 10

Hauraki Maori Trust Board

The Social and Economic Situation of

Hauraki Maori after Colonisation

W.H. OLIVER

HAURAKI MAORI TRUST BOARD

1997

First published in 1997 by
Hauraki Maori Trust Board
PO Box 33, Paeroa
Aotearoa New Zealand

ISBN 1-877198-05-6

Hauraki Maori Trust Board

This report was commissioned by the Hauraki Maori Trust Board
as part of its Waitangi Tribunal Claim research programme.
Any views expressed and condusions drawn are those of the author.

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, induding photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.

Typeset by Wordset Enterprises Limited, Wellington
Printed by GP Print, Wellington, New Zealand

FOREWORD

The Hauraki Treaty Claims project has examined the nature and extent of the interaction of Maori with the Crown in the Hauraki tribal territory during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The claims, together with the research and supporting evidence are set out in eleven volumes. These are presented to the Waitangi Tribunal to support the Hauraki case.

The history of colonisation in Hauraki—the social and economic deprivation endured by those who have gone before us and their years of responsible protest—has not been told before. These volumes, the foundation of the Hauraki case, will forever rewrite our nation's history books, contributing, only now, a Maori perspective to the history of this region.

We began this project four years ago with a multi-disciplinary team approach. Professor Oliver was part of this team, contributing a socio-economic perspective to examine the condition of Maori consequent to colonisation by European settlers.

Professor Oliver's The Social and Economic Situation of Hauraki Maori after Colonisation provides a careful analysis of the plight of Hauraki Maori. His research describes the inequitable provision of health and education, combined with almost complete landlessness leading to the persistent deprivation and poverty faced by Hauraki Maori.

The Hauraki treaty claims are a consequence of the Crown's actions after it signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Professor Oliver's report will significantly support the Hauraki case in the debate that will inevitably surround the Hauraki claims. I take this opportunity to thank Professor Oliver for his contribution to this project.

No reira, noho ora koutou.

T J Mc nte

Claims   ager

Hauraki Maori Trust Board

III

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface   VII

1.  Introduction: overview and argument

2. The regional population

3. The world of work   27

4.  Schools and education   36

5. Health and medical care   43

6. Conclusion: a question of responsibility   58

Bibliography   63

Maps

1. Land tenure, 1909--19I0   5

2. Maori and non-Maori population, 1916   7

Tables

t. Statistics of New Zealand, 1857

2. Hauraki district tribal table, 1878   20

3. Hauraki Maori population in counties, 1886-1916   23

Appendices

Dr M.H. Payne's Report, 1885   67

II Hoani Nahe's Letter, 1890   70

III Constable Law's Report, 1901   74

iv Inspector Bird's Report, 1905   77

v Porangi Meo's Letter, 1910   79

vi School Teacher Church's Letter, 1913   8o

PREFACE

My name is William Hosking Oliver. I was educated in schools in Fending and Dannevirke, graduated from the University of New Zealand (Victoria University College) with first class honours in history in 1951 and from the University of Oxford (Balliol and Nuffield Colleges) D.Phil. in history in 1953. In 1964, after employment as junior lecturer, lecturer and senior lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Canterbury, I was appointed foundation Professor of History at Massey University. I became Emeritus Professor at Massey on my resignation in 1983 to become General Editor of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. I retired from that position in 1990. In that year I was awarded the OBE and graduated D.Litt.(Hon) from Victoria University. Since that time I have worked as an historical consultant and writer for the DNZB, the Crown Forestry Rental Trust and for the Hauraki Maori Trust Board. My publications in New Zealand history include The Story of New Zealand (1960), Challenge and Response (1971), The Oxford History of New Zealand (ed. 1984), Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Vol 1, ed. 1990), Claims to the Waitangi Tribunal (1991), and numerous essays, papers and reviews especially in social policy history. I have made submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal in connection with the Muriwhenua Land Claim and to the Department of Justice on the Crown Proposals for the Settlement of Treaty of Waitangi Claims.

VII

I. INTRODUCTION:

OVERVIEW AND ARGUMENT

Introduction

LI The analysis and discussion which follows is organised under the headings of population, work, education and health. Though no separate section is devoted to land loss, that is the dominant economic development affecting the lives of Hauraki Maori during and after colonisation. It was the major factor making for change, and for an abrupt decline, in their social and economic situation. The loss of land and of its associated resources is recounted in detail in other reports presented to the Tribunal. Though the treatment of land matters in the introduction to this report is of a summary kind, it should be stressed that it is basic to the argument advanced—it underlies and permeates the developments discussed in more detail.

1.2 This report discusses social and economic change in a region which may be broadly defined as including the Coromandel peninsula, the islands of the Hauraki gulf, and districts south and west of the Firth of Thames towards Waikato and the Tamaki isthmus. It is not possible to place precise boundaries to the Hauraki rohe or, for that matter, to any region identified by tribal tradition and occupancy. However, in the preparation of this report those items were noted which had a clear application to places within this region and to the people living within it. The locations from which specific items of evidence arise are noted in the text or in the references.

1.3 Broadly, the period covered by this report runs from the 187os to the 191os, though some reference is made to earlier and later decades. This half-century is sufficient for an examination of the consequences of government action within the context of colonisation. The effective colonisation of New Zealand began around 1840 and that of the Hauraki district not long after, with the gold discoveries and the Crown land purchases of the Asos. It accelerated in the 187os and within that decade transformed the region from a Maori to a Pakeha domain. By the early zoth century the work of colonisation had been effectively completed and the role of the state sufficiently defined.

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

1.4 The New Zealand state, from the governorships of George Grey and Thomas Gore Browne in the mid-19th century to the prime ministerships of Richard Seddon and William Massey in the early 2oth century, was active in the promotion of colonisation in New Zealand as a whole and in the Hauraki region. If there is one theme that links these otherwise disparate regimes, it is a determination to transfer the control of economic resources, especially land and land-based resources, from Maori to Pakeha, and to do so by legal and (in their view) morally justifiable means. In this report considerable attention will be paid to the role of the state, not in order to praise or to condemn those who managed it, but to enable a judgement to be made as to the wisdom, propriety and adequacy of the actions they took to deal with what they themselves recognised as the damaging consequences of their policies.

1.5 While this period is long enough for the major consequences of colonisation to become evident, it is also brief enough to indicate something of its concentrated impact. Maori born in the 184os would have been—if lucky enough—still alive in the early zoth century. A single lifetime would have encompassed a series of major transformations—a brief time of prosperous commerce with the young colonial capital, a time of war and blockade, the felling of the great forests, the gold rushes and the establishment of the gold industry, the decline of the Maori and the increase of the settler population, a series of major local outbreaks of disease accentuating a situation of persistent ill-health, the loss of all but a small proportion of the land, and a general condition of economic decline and social dislocation. It is important that both the pace and the extent of change be kept in mind; together they constitute a complete revolution, political, social and economic, affecting the whole of life.

1.6 To indicate the nature of this revolution, and to examine the role of government both in helping to bring it about and in dealing (or not dealing) with its human consequences, a brief background sketch is necessary. Two topics will be considered in the remainder of this section. First, the pattern of change over the period will be summarised; and second, its general character will be discussed in an effort to identify the role of the state in shaping events.

Overview

1.7 The European penetration of Hauraki began before 1840, with the arrival of a handful of missionaries and traders. Their number cannot have exceeded a few hundreds; the 1841 settler population of the Hauraki/Tamaki area has been estimated at about moo (Stone, The Economic Impoverishment of Hauraki Maori, p. 1). A modest quantity of land passed from Maori to Pakeha hands through land deals before 1840; the largest were the Fairburn purchase on the mainland and the Whitaker and Dumoulin purchase on Great Barrier Island. These deals were later investigated by government and in most cases settlers were confirmed in their claims, often with a reduction of the area

2

Introduction: Overview and Argument

claimed. Only in a few cases (notably the Fairburn purchase) did the Crown acquire a significant amount of land deemed 'surplus' to the amount granted to settlers (The 'Bell report', AJHR 1862 Dm, 1863 D14; [Ward], Historical report on South Auckland lands).

1.8 Pakeha settlement of Hauraki increased slowly in the 184os and 185os, but a major increase occurred on the western side of the gulf where Auckland enjoyed a spectacular growth. By 1852 the settler population of the region centred upon the Tamaki isthmus had reached about io,000. This had a major commercial impact upon Hauraki; Auckland for a few profitable years became a market for Maori producers of a variety of food products and of fuel (Stone, pp. 7-9). This trade shows that Maori were capable of putting their resources to good use in responding to the commercial openings presented by colonisation. They also purchased equipment—flour mills, cutters and iron tools—to pursue their commercial goals. It is likely that they expected similar advantages to accrue from the gold and timber exploitation which lay in the near future. However, the trade boom of the 185os was short-lived and some would-be Maori entrepreneurs ran into debt. Trade appears to have fallen away after 1856 and to have ceased altogether with the government imposed blockade of the early 1860s, a war measure designed to separate Hauraki King supporters from the Waikato region.

1.9 Other changes, however, which also began in the 1850s, were to lead to the transformation of the region within little more than two decades. Timber exploitation, especially of kauri, became established. Though much of the trade was in the hands of Pakeha entrepreneurs, with Maori receiving royalties and rents, some Maori were themselves entrepreneurs, felling and selling timber trees while still working communally. The early timber trade was to the mutual advantage of Maori and Pakeha, but this phase was superseded by settler capitalist control. The first gold rush occurred in the Coromandel district in 1852. It led nowhere at the time, but the episode demonstrated the determination of both settlers and government to exploit the mineral wealth of the region. It also showed the resolve of Maori to assert their right to the resources that lay under their land. During the next decade it became clear that the former ambition was to prevail.

Though not yet on a major scale, government land purchasing also became significant in the 185os. Though many of the transactions begun in that decade were not to be completed until much later, by 1860 government purchasing agents had established significant beachheads as well as some inland enclaves, chiefly in the north of the peninsula, on the gulf islands and to the south and west of the Firth. It has been calculated, for the Coromandel Peninsula only, that government purchases from 1840 to 1865 amounted to around 48,000 acres, making up from 6 to 7% of the total area. Most of these sales took place after 1853 (Kate Riddell, Pre-I865 Crown purchases, pp. 3-4). In addition, negotiations were initiated in this period affecting many other blocks, a number in the Piako district, which were later to result in completed purchases.

3

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

Li' The Wars of the 186os were preceded by opposition to land sales and by widespread sympathy with the goals of the King movement. Nevertheless, for the most part, Hauraki Maori were either 'loyal' to the Crown or maintained a neutral stance during the years of fighting. Their wish to maintain a trade relationship with Auckland provided an incentive to at least neutrality Though they were in the main nonparticipants, they suffered from the war, by the cessation of trade with Auckland and through the confiscation of some of their lands. In its turn, confiscation put pressure upon the remaining lands of the tribes affected. As well as from the war and its consequences, in the 186os major pressures upon Maori resources came from a renewed determination to exploit gold-bearing land, from the increase in timber exploitation, and from a heightened demand for either the control or the outright acquisition of land.

1.12 At the beginning of the 186os the Auckland provincial government began to campaign for the opening of the Coromandel Peninsula to gold mining. There was limited Maori support for this initiative. The rush of 1862-1863 was brief and insignificant, but that of 1867 to the Kauaeranga district had very different results. The Pakeha population shot up to around 12,000 in 1868; some ro,000 are said to have arrived within a single year. Almost at once, the new town of Thames acquired a population of some 5,000. By 1871 it had become New Zealand's fifth largest population centre (Stone, pp. 63-64). Most of the growth came from the arrival of miners, together with storekeepers, publicans, farmers and professionals, from elsewhere in New Zealand. In particular, Hauraki absorbed Auckland's surplus labouring population and gave struggling rural settlers an additional source of income.

1.13 This new population greatly intensified the demand for land and further stimulated the existing demand for timber for mining operations and for building, throughout the colony as well as locally. As steam driven mills took over Maori tree-fellers were driven out of business; as competition increased the pressure upon timber-bearing land intensified. Gold mining required the large scale cession by Maori of rights (and by that token also of control) over their lands. This was a quartz not an alluvial field, requiring capital investment and a permanent supply of wage labour. In the main, the goldfields population was not a migratory collection of diggers but a relatively stable population of workers whose presence created a sizeable market and a source of supplementary employment for farmers. Settlement of this kind, especially as the industry fell away from its peak, required land for townships and farms and so brought about a demand for the outright transfer of ownership from Maori to Pakeha, either through the Crown or private purchase. By 1865 the Native Land Court had been established to service both modes of transfer; its operations begin in Waiheke and Coromandel in that year.

1.14 In the 187os the economic and social penetration of the region by gold, timber and settlement reached a peak and though there was some decline in the volume of economic activity, thereafter it was permanently at a much higher level. Hauraki Maori, who had experienced in the 185os a new economy in which they could participate without loss of

4

Introduction: Overview and Argument

1896   18,224   (2,255)

1901   23,199   (2,054)

1906   22,366   (2,144)

1911   23,191   (1,929)

A map published in 1916 (Census of New Zealand, 1916, facing p. 175) shows the relative position of the two populations. In Coromandel there were I0-24 Maori for every ioo others; in Thames and Ohinemuri 5-9; for the neighbouring counties the figures were: Franklin 5-9 and Manuka 1-4. (Only in Great Barrier county did Maori remain a substantial presence at 25-49 per ioo others, but this county had in 1916 a non-Maori population of only 245.)

1.22 The consequences of change were many-sided. For Maori it was a loss of authority, standing and well-being; they became a small and overshadowed minority as well as an economically insignificant and socially disadvantaged one. The greater part by far of the land, an essential basis for recovery and progress of the kind that was underway in the Ngati Porou rohe by the late 19th century, had passed into other hands. No doubt vestiges of the traditional food-gathering and gardening economy persisted, but they would have been severely limited by Pakeha ownership and competition. Such meagre resources provided an unreliable subsistence even for a reduced population and were totally inadequate for future development.

1.23 In the face of these transformations, occurring within a few decades, the life of Hauraki Maori changed radically and, in essence, for the worse. The modes of adaptation, which had been effective before the 186os and which had shown the capacity of traditional social structures to adapt to new economic possibilities, had been overwhelmed by the capitalist order of the mining and timber companies, the land dealers and the settlers, by the dislocation of a communal society, and by the New Zealand state as the agent and the facilitator of these new forces. Although, in the rest of this report, there is inevitably an emphasis upon loss—simply because loss on a major scale occurred, of land and economic autonomy, mana and authority, well-being and health—Hauraki Maori also exhibited a persistence in self-assertion, self-reliance and protest, which testifies to their capacity to survive.

The argument

1.24 The basic argument in this report is that underlying the plight of Hauraki Maori is the far-reaching loss of their economic resources and the frustration of the commercial initiatives they had taken earlier. On the one hand, the resources upon which the vestiges of a traditional economy relied were severely diminished and, in any case, inadequate for the requirements of a more developed capitalist and exploitative economy. On the other hand, the sharp and radical decline in the ownership and control of the major economic factor—land and land-based resources—precluded even a modest

9

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

participation in that new economy, except as disadvantaged dependents. Maori were relegated to the bottom of the socio-economic heap. Even in that lowly position, there is evidence to suggest that they were limited in their access to various forms of wage labour, the main support of Pakeha in a similar situation.

1.25 The evidences of social deprivation are plentiful. Maori health suffered from endemic and epidemic diseases, the incidence and severity of which are closely related to the standard of living. Housing, sanitation and nutrition conditions encouraged the spread of infection and diminished the capacity to resist it. While it is the case that Maori, here as elsewhere, were still characterised by a lack of inherited immunity to introduced diseases, the conditions in which they lived accentuated this vulnerability It is generally accepted that there is a link between a high incidence of such illnesses and persistent low living standards—they are commonly known as 'the diseases of poverty'

1.26 While the existence of such conditions is clear enough, the question of responsibility for their existence, and for the meagre level of ameliorative action, is more complex. One answer to this question which needs to be explored at the outset is that Maori themselves, thanks to what was considered to be their fecklessness and irresponsibility, were the authors of their own misfortune. The frequently censorious Native Agent, E.W. Puckey, summed up this attitude in 1879: 'the Natives at Hauraki ... so far as civilisation is concerned ... seem incapable of progressing' (AJHR 1879 GO. Certainly some Maori, including tribal leaders of great standing, assisted the colonisation process which brought about their misfortunes; a few among them were active promoters and derived considerable personal advantage from it. It is certain, too, that many Maori succumbed to the temptations offered by the chances to acquire quick and ready cash. But the question remains: what other options were open to them?

1.27 There is no shortage of evidence to show that some Maori agreed to the cession of mining rights and to the leasing of timber-bearing lands, and that a few were investors in gold and timber companies. They accepted the revenues which flowed from these agreements. They were party to the transactions which radically reduced Maori land ownership, both by selling interests before Land Court determination and by subsequently accepting the offers of government and private purchasers to complete the sales. In fact, they often took the initiative in offering their shares and their lands to prospective purchasers. They slipped into dependence upon cash returns from transactions of this kind and are frequently reported to have neglected food production in favour of store-bought goods.

1.28 All this is true, but not true enough. Maori were under constant political (and in the 1860s military) pressure to accede to the demands of government and private purchasers. After the experience of war in nearby Waikato, the blockade in the gulf and confiscation on the borders of their rohe, tribal leaders could have reasonably concluded that the peace was going to be at least as hard as the war; while some concluded that the

10

Introduction: Overview and Argument

best strategy for the future was to resist further encroachment, others made it their business to seize whatever advantages were on offer. In the post-war years, Hauraki leaders displayed a variety of responses; more appear to have maintained their opposition than to have welcomed the changes. Probably opposition to government grew as colonisation advanced. Puckey, in his last report as Native Agent, listed the 'friendly' leaders who had died since he took up his position in 1869, and went on: 'I regret to say the younger men who have succeeded them do not seem to have the same influence for good' (AJHR 1880 G4). The leaders who co-operated with the government had a stark choice—either to resist constant and heavy pressure or to join the winning side in the hope of securing at least some advantages. Though, as might be expected, some acted from motives of personal gain, this is at best a small part of the explanation.

1.29 Because, perhaps, Hauraki leaders who co-operated with government were praised by officials and settlers at the time, their activities have become altogether too familiar. Other leaders resisted the loss of tribal lands for many years, even if in the end unsuccessfully. Further, specific items of government policy prompted a regular succession of protests, often from 'co-operative' leaders such as W.H. Taipari on the matter of gold revenues (Thames Advertiser, 10 and 11 February 1893) over the later 19th century, again without effect.

1.30 In this context of rapid change, pressure and division, land agents both government and private were presented with golden opportunities. They vigorously solicited and engineered offers of the sale of interests in land. They exploited internal divisions, between iwi and within iwi, separating out those who were willing to sell and using such consent to turn up the pressure upon the others. In the critical 187os the infamous system of raihana (rations) prevailed, as Mackay made a multitude of hand-outs to Maori and exploited this induced indebtedness to enforce assent to sales (Anderson). Government agents bought up storekeeper debts and thus were able to manipulate Maori indebtedness to enforce agreements to sell. They financed surveys for Maori owners (required before the Land Court would grant title) and used the outstanding costs of survey to compel sales once the Court had determined title. However 'willing' they might appear, Maori sellers cannot be represented as free agents; it would be more generally true to say that they were acting under a duress exercised by the agents of government with the sanction of the state.

1.31 In addition, Maori were influenced by assurances that they would benefit from a prosperous colonial future. Politicians and officials held out this prospect as the reward Maori could expect for their co-operation. The Superintendent of Auckland, John Williamson, became almost lyrical in depicting the advantages Maori could expect from co-operating in the opening of the Kauaeranga goldfield in 1866: 'If we unite together ... we shall have treasures and riches. ... Your children will be benefited ...' (Anderson). But the advantages were not equitably shared; those which did accrue to Maori proved to be short-lived. In the 1870s and the 1880s returns to Maori from gold

11

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

and timber fell away. Puckey reported Maori discontent at a 40% fall-off in miners' rights returns in 1875; rather inconsistently, he complained that his warnings that this income would show a 'gradual decline' had been disregarded (AJHR 1875 GIB). Gold revenues fell away thanks in part to government changes in the rules as well as to declining output. In the case of timber, loss of ownership of timber-bearing lands led to the same result. As this situation progressed, land became the major remaining commodity that could be turned into cash. But returns from land sales also declined as less and less land was left for sale. Well within a lifetime the expectation of advantage proved to be illusory. The outcome of 'development' was for Maori permanent economic disadvantage, not 'treasures and riches'. The promised opportunities did not open up. On the contrary the land itself, which could have become the basis for at least a modest recovery, was gone.

1.32 In the decades following the opening of the goldfields in the 1860s, Hauraki Maori became more and more habituated to and trapped within a cash economy. Their need for cash cost them their land and thus led to a lack of resources to participate profitably in the new economy. While governments can hardly be held wholly responsible for bringing this situation about—a question to be discussed shortly—they can at least be censured for exploiting it to their own advantage and to that of settlers. As well as using the devices noted earlier, government took quasi-monopolistic powers to exclude private buyers from many blocks and so eliminated the potential benefits of competition. Its agents commonly were able to enforce the acceptance of prices well below those sought by sellers. It is surely beyond dispute that governments, whatever may have been the limits upon their capacity to protect Maori from these developments, should not have taken advantage of them and acted in an exploitative manner.

1.33 The role of government in this history of loss needs further examination. What part did it play? Further, what part might it have been expected to have played? Colonisation, it could be answered, was an irresistible historical force which operated on its own momentum from the 15th to the 19th centuries and was well beyond the control of governments. That may be satisfactory as a general statement about a long term historical trend. But it does not eliminate questions of responsibility. Its usefulness as an explanatory tool diminishes the closer one draws to specific episodes of colonisation—to, in this instance, the colonisation of Hauraki. Within the overall context of colonisation a range of options were available to those who made and administered policy. Certainly their actions can be seen within the context of a long-term historical trend, but they remain the particular actions of particular people.

1.34 The question, then, is not 'Should government have prevented colonisation?' It is, rather, 'Should government have imposed the colonising policies it in fact adopted?' And further, 'Were less penal alternatives, still within the overall framework of colonisation, available to government?' These questions call for an examination of two further questions. First, was it within the capacity of 19th century New Zealand governments to

12

Introduction: Overview and Argument

act more effectively in the interests of Maori? Second, had they done so would they have been acting in an improperly paternalistic manner by not leaving Maori to work out their own destinies?

1.35 In relation to the first question it will be argued, especially in relation to Maori health and education, that governments did in fact take some steps to deal with the situation, and thereby recognised that there was a problem. But those actions, especially in relation to health, were on a small scale and minimally financed. It would have been beyond the imagination as well as the capacity of 19th century governments to introduce a complete system of public health care, whether for Maori or Pakeha or both. However, the provision actually made for Maori could have been considerably more extensive with beneficial results and without excessive cost. The provision in fact made did have a beneficial effect for brief periods in specific localities; a moderate expansion would have had a greater effect in more places and for a longer time.

1.36 The matter of paternalism is more problematic. There were those at the time who argued that Maori should be allowed to sink or swim in the challenging new environment; some Maori believed this. But 'swimming' was difficult (if not worse) without resources and without at least that level of assistance which Pakeha had from the state. In many locations, including Hauraki, Maori lacked both the resources and the assistance which their Pakeha neighbours enjoyed. James Carroll, in his note to the report of the 1891 Royal Commission on Native Land Laws, identified two ways in which government inhibited Maori progress in agriculture. First, Crown monopoly led to low prices for land sold and so to a lack of money to reinvest in farming. Second, Maori were ineligible for government assistance in their efforts to become 'useful settlers' (AJHR 1891 GI). Apirana Ngata was to reiterate this plea for assistance (in the form of Advances to Settlers loans) sixteen years later (AJHR 1907 GI)

1.37 It would not have been unreasonably paternalistic to have ensured that Maori, in Hauraki and elsewhere, retained enough land, secured reasonable profits from the land they chose to sell, and received the same assistance that many struggling Pakeha settlers received. Had such policies obtained, at the least Maori would have been somewhat better off and could have made modest progress towards recovery from the unavoidable shocks of colonisation. But, within the context of state assisted land settlement, they were given only a negative role to play. They were the dispossessed upon whose former land the aspiring Pakeha were settled (Brooking, New Zealand Journal of History, 26:1, 1992).

1.38 In the main body of this report these arguments will be supported by detailed evidence and the matter of state responsibility will be revisited in the concluding section. A good deal of emphasis will be placed on the matter of Maori health, in terms of actual conditions and of government policy and administration. Education, a government activity closely connected in administrative practise with health, will also be examined. Again, because the major theme of this report is the interdependence of health and

13

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

economic conditions, attention will be paid to the employment opportunities open to Hauraki Maori. However, the basic economic situation is the loss of land, the major economic resource. The process of land alienation has already been broadly described here and is covered in greater detail in other reports. To provide an essential background to these topics, an outline of the demographic history of Hauraki Maori is set out in the following section.

14

Z. THE REGIONAL POPULATION

2.1 The study of the Maori population in the i9th and early loth centuries presents difficulties that preclude any but the most general and cautious conclusions. This is even more the case with an attempt to describe the population of a particular region. These difficulties arise from the nature of the sources. While they must be used in the absence of any others, they must be approached with due caution.

2.2 The sources include: observations and estimates offered by visitors before the mid-19th century, usually of limited localities; the more thorough and careful survey made by F. D. Fenton in 1857; a series of more hasty estimates published by the government in the 186os; three censuses (1874, 1878 and 1881) which give figures under tribal headings for particular districts; a series of seven censuses from 1886 to 1916 which give figures for Maori resident in counties. Three of these also give information for a tribal entity designated Ngati Maru'. The censuses are the main source, and their limitations are evident. Maori population was assessed by enumerators while the Pakeha population was measured through schedules filled in by individuals. The enumerators were conscientious, but they were themselves aware of the deficiencies of the process.

2.3 For a regional study additional problems occur. There is no way of knowing the precise region to which enumerators refer when they indicate the 'Hauraki district' or the 'Thames district' (though an effort will be made to penetrate this obscurity). Further, though figures related to administrative counties must be used, groupings of relevant counties are either less or more extensive than the traditional Hauraki rohe. Again, though some reference will be made to figures which purport to show tribal populations there are major difficulties in nomenclature. Finally, the main and most useful series for the late 19th and early loth century period refer to all Maori within each county. Members of 'non-Hauraki' tribes are included in 'Hauraki' figures and some 'Hauraki' people are counted in more distant counties.

2.4 Given these problems, the goals of this section of the report must be limited ones. First, an attempt will be made to present in outline the evidence that arises from these disparate sources; second, some conclusions of a broad and general kind will be suggested; and third, what appear to be critical points in the demographic history of Maori in the region will be identified.

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THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

Early observations

2.5 In 1769 James Cook noted that while there were several villages on the Waihou river, there were no cultivations and the population was not numerous. Edgar Dell of the Fancy, however, observed in the mid-179os large numbers on the Waihou and estimated that between 1,5oo and 2,000 people were gathered at a particular place where 117 canoes were also seen. A few years later, in 1801, William Wilson on the Royal Admiral estimated that some 4,000-5,000 people were gathered at Oruarangi ready to go to war, but his estimates for particular villages are in the lower hundreds. Considerably later, in 1820, the missionary John Butler counted zo villages in the vicinity of Mokoia and estimated their population at 4,000. In 1832 Henry Williams found evidence of depopulation on the east coast of the peninsula following the Ngapuhi raids; in 1833, he found few people on the west side of the Firth and noted that while villages were numerous they were in ruins. His brother, William, made a more precise report for the district he called 'the Thames' in 1838 indicating a population of 4,800. In 1841, Ernest Dieffenbach put the population of `Marutuahu' at 5,000, but must have been relying upon information from others (Furey, Archaeology in the Hauraki Region, and for the two following paragraphs).

z.6 Evidence from contemporaries suggests a high level of depopulation and out-migration during the 182os and 183os, thanks in good measure to the series of Ngapuhi raids from the north during the early part of this period. Many Hauraki people appear to have left to live rather uneasily with Ngati Haua to the south. They returned to their lands from time to time 'to keep the fires lit' and moved back in some numbers after the raids were over. Further, deaths in battle were numerous and many were taken north as slaves for plantation labour. In the late 185os Fenton noticed a scarcity of women around the Thames, Coromandel and Waiheke districts; whatever the reason may have been (Fenton suggested they were drawn to the opportunities of Auckland) their absence could have had an adverse effect upon fertility

2.7 These reports suggest that the region was, in normal times, fairly populous—a conclusion which would be in accordance with the richness of the food sources in the region, especially the gulf waters and foreshores. They also suggest that a significant decline set in around the 182os, caused by wartime casualties, deportation and out-migration. Introduced diseases too probably played their part; the region is among those coastal zones where early 'disease episodes' were recorded (Pool, p. 45 Figure 3.1). It is likely that William Williams' estimate of 1838 (4,800) reflects a substantial decline from the population of the pre-contact period, to some extent offset by the return of the Hauraki refugees after the strife with their Ngati Haua hosts.

The Fenton survey 1857

2.8 This survey (Statistics of New Zealand, 1857, and also published as Observations on the state of the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand, 1859) for which F.D. Fenton

i6

The Regional Population

drew upon a range of returns and impressions, arose from the government's concern with the decline of the Maori population. Accordingly, it is much more specific as to age, sex and family size than as to location and distribution. While many of its tables give information about individual tribes, these do not include any from the Hauraki region.

2.9 Fenton gives a general table under the heading 'Provinces and Districts', but the limits of the districts are not stated. For the Hauraki region the relevant locations are:

Thames   1,428
Gulf of Hauraki 214

Coromandel   351

Mercury Bay   56

Te Wairoa   230

Total   2,279

2.10 'Thames' probably refers to both sides of the Firth of Thames (there was no town of that name at the time), 'Coromandel' to the northern part of the peninsula, 'Mercury Bay' to the district still known by that name, and 'Gulf of Hauraki' to the islands and the mainland on the western side of the gulf. If this reconstruction is correct, Fenton's region would correspond reasonably closely with the overall Hauraki area. Possibly, however, the district from Whangamata south to about Katikati would have contained Hauraki people excluded from his estimate. Fenton's figures have been considered an under-enumeration by demographers (Pool, Te Iwi Maori, p. 54). Accordingly, the regional figure should be revised upwards, perhaps to around 2,500. Set beside Williams' and Dieffenbach's estimates from 1838 and 1841, this still suggests a very sharp decline. Even if it is allowed that the earlier figures may be seriously inflated, it seems reasonable to conclude that the 184os and 185os saw a distinct decline in the Hauraki Maori population, probably through increased mortality, and possibly reduced fertility and out-migration.

2.11 However, Fenton's survey does suggest that the Hauraki district was still, on a comparative basis, a fairly populous area in the 185os. He gives 38, 269 as his estimate for the Auckland province (ie. the whole area stretching south to the boundaries of Taranaki and Wellington provinces); Hauraki accounts for around 6-7% of this total. Other districts listed by Fenton include: Hokianga, 2,789; Lower Waikato, 1,729; Manuka (Manukau), 591.

Further decline in the 186os?

2.12 No Maori data were included in the 1864 Census, thanks to 'the disturbed condition' of the country. The 1871 census gave no figures for Maori because it was not considered 'practicable' to do so. However, an estimate published in 1867 does give detailed figures, including one for `Ngatimaru and adjacent Tribes'—as many as 3,670, more than 13% of the total for the Auckland province. In the light of Fenton's earlier figure and the yet lower figure from the 1874 census, this estimate must be regarded with

17

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

TABLE I: STATISTICS OF NEW ZEALAND, 1857

No. 2. .

TABLE 3110WLNG (AS FAR AS CAN BE ASCERTAINED) TUE ABORIGINAL NATIVE POPITLITION
OF NEW ZEALAND, LN THE YEAR 1857.

MALES.   PEN.u.na.

PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS.TOTALS.

Under Above i Total. Under Above

Total. 14.   14.   14.   14.

    — --- — —   

   . PROVINCE OF A 17CELAND.   

AntrAlc..t.   ...   ...   —   —   95 328   423   93   146   239   662

BICIRIWBENUA   ...   ...   ...   • • •   15   55   70   12   25   37   W7

Mosso:in   ...   ...   ..-   ...   78   280   358   83   194 277   635

KAITAIA   • • •   a• •   •-•   • • •   112   192   304   78   202   280   584

WANGAROA.   ...   ...   ...   • • •   51   143   194   44   136   180   374

HOIELANGA.   ...   ...   ...   ...   317 1,289 1,606   252   931 1,183 2,789

Luso=   ...   --   ...   ...   38 112   150   25   78   103   253

   Ts WAISLATE AND Ts KAWATC.A.Wi ...   ••••   129 410 539 100 271 371   910

BAY OP ISLANDS   ...   ...   ...   ...   108   342   450   72   209   281   731

WINGAREI   ...   —   ...   ...   79   154 233   79   117   196   429

Nomsountr   ...   --   ...   ...   40   70   110   40   50   90   200

UPPER KAAPARA   ...   ...   ...   ...   70   150 220   60   110 170   390

LOWER Mur\_uu. ...   ...   ...   ...   57 250 307   43   140 183   490

CENTRAL. WAIKATO ...   ...   ...   ...   170   213   383   139   166 305   688   (

Lowza Wais..tto ...   ...   ...   ...   389   641 1,030   223   476   699 1,729

LowEs WAIP A   ..   •-•   ...   ...   66 148 214   30   48   78   292

CENTRAL W-ura   ...   ...   ...   ...   106   239   345   83   192 275   620

AOTEA   ...   ...   • • •   ...   32   131   163   45   130   175   338

WHALN GAROA   ...   ...   ...   ...   80   155   235   48   141   159   424

   "   SEA COAST TO WAIEATO   ...   35   67 102   16   58   74   176

KAWILIA   ...   ...   ...   ...   109   221   330   73   167   240   570

UPPER Wan-A.   ...   ...   ...   ...   207 ' 409   616   165   301   466 1,082

Mos\_to A.ND DITTO ...   ...   ...   ...   237   639   876   184   443   627 1,503

BANC IA0WHIA   ...   ...   ...   ...   154   364   518   148   297   445   963

How:ail:   ...   ...   . - -   ...   179 / 565 i 744   177   478   655   1,399

   "   UPPER   ...   ...   ...   ...   100   245 i345   90   100   190   535

THAMES   ...   ...   ...   ...   2S1   531   812   228   388   616   1,428

ALCM-LAND CITY   ...   ...   ...   ...   10   68   78   18   61   79 I157

WAITE3ZATA   ...   ...   ...   ...   43   143 i186   27   72   99 i235

Grx.r or ELIEralsi ...   ...   ...   ...   26   104   130   65   84   214

Ts Wrisor   ...   ...   ...   ...   37   88   125   31   74   105   230

COROMANDEL   ...   ...   ...   ...   48   116   164   60   127   157   351

.11sscsnr Bar   ...   ...   ...   ...   11   20   31   9   16   25   56

Mrs us..   ...   •..   •..   ...   121   204   325   87   179   266 1   591

311N GA WUAI   ...   ...   ...   ...   I24   40 I64 J14   27   41   105   ■

1

Tcm1:03r,

Source: Statistics of New Zealand for 1857

18

The Regional Population

TABLE E STATISTICS OF NEW ZEALAND, 185 (continued)

•

No. 2—continued.

T.t&.E MOWING (AS FIR AS CAN BE ASCERTAINED) TIM ABORIGLNAL NATIVE POPULATION
OF NEW ZEALAND, IN TUE YEAR 1857—continued.

   .   MALES.   FEXALES.

PROVINCES AND DISTRICTS.   I   1   TOTAL'S.

Under Above Total. Under Abov

Total. 14.   14.   '''   14.   14.

PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND--continued.

Tunazaa, Ilicar.'s Bs; &c. (estimated)   ...   ...*   ...• 4,050   - .•   ...* 2,750 6,300

TICRAX G A   ...   ...   ...   ...   •...   ...*   550   ...*   ....   430   1,000

ROTORUA, MAKETII, TAWS-ERA, &c. ...   ...   ...•   ...* 1,210   ...*   .... 1,050 2,260

   WHIKATANE, OPOT/KI, &c. ......   ...*   .... 1,960   ...•   .... 1,880 3,840

...

Tarr°180 900 1,080   120 800 920 2,000
...

** •   *"   •••

---... –... 27,630 I ...   ... 1;06,a 33,190

NOT DETAILED   ...   ...   ...   ...   26

WAISATO, STRANGERS IN   •••   ...   ...   ...   ......   ...   ...   ...   53

- - -----. - -   --

TOTALS IN PROVINCE OF ACCHLAND   ...

   – -- --   

PROVENCE OF NEW PLTMOUTII.

   CAPE EGI/ONT, NORTH TO THE PATEA R. SOUTH,   WO 550 720 155 460 615 1,335

TE POUTOKO to Hamtaxos. ...   ...   ...   11   45   56   7   31   38-   94

Elimar.uu to 310E0TON cr   ...   ...   ...   15   51   66   9   21   41   107

4.

Wazza.   ...   ...   .–   ...   20   55   75   11 :   40   51   126

I

()saws. to Trroza. ...   ...   ...   .-   14   39   53   9 1 22 j31   84

WAITAIIA to PUNGIEREERE ...   .-   ...   6   18   24   7 I 10 IJ17   41
I

TE Tazazu to TE Ustrzos. ...   ...   ...   13   44   57   8 • 23   31

!   88

WAIACA to °MIAMI   ...   ...   ...   3   1   4   ... I   1   1   5

   TE HAWAII, TE HUA, MANGATI, 310TRROA, &c...   33 146 179   30 104 134   313

TE TANIWITA, &c.   ..   ...   ...   ...   8-   44   52   9   25   37 I89

HCIEANGI, WAIT1RA, &c.   ...   ...   .–   52    321   373   51   179 230   603

.MANGORAS.A. AND WAIONOANA   ...   ...   21 1 71   92   4   34 I33   130
,--- --- - - -

   TOTALS IN PROVINCE OF NEW PLYMOUTH ...   366 11,355 1,751   300   964 1,264 3,015

PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.'

WAITOTAr–t   ...   ...   ...   ...   51   134   205   44   121   165   370

LOWER WANGANUI ...   ...   ...   ...   75   202   277   69   168 i237   514

MIDDLE WANGANUI ...   ...   ...   ...   271 • 964 i1,235   236   739 i975 2,210

Urrze. IVA.N.Gastr ...   ...   ...   ...   63   169   232   63   139   202   434

TLIacTALIES OF THE WANGANUT   ..•   ...   67 164 231   56 142 198   429

RANGITIEEI   ...   ...   ...   ...   94 1 248   342   85   220   305   647

RANGITIKEI TO MANAWATU ...   ...   ...   81 322 403   66   187 253   656

MAssivar. a   ..   .-   . -   ...   4 t 26   30   5   18 I23   53

MANAWATU TO OTAGI   ...   ...   ...   75 252 327   70   176 246   573

OT-LEI   ...   ...   ...   ...   47   175   222   39   120   159   381

WAIGANAE TO PORIRUA   ...   ...   ...   46 174. I220   34   126 160   380
Pont aux

•                            Information not obtained.

1

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

TABLE 2: HAURAKI DISTRICT TRIBAL TABLE, 1878

From: Census of 1878, showing 'tribal' numbers in 'Hauraki District' (AJHR 1878 G2) G.-2.   0

Enclosures.

-   WHANGANIII DismacT—continued.   -

Males Females Kales Pamela

•           Name of Tribe.   Fame of Raps.   1   Residence.

   15over 7eus 15 y over ears 15under years - 15 years   l.

   under   Total

of no.   of ate-   of ay.   of age-

-

Ngatiraukawa   ... Ngatiparewahawaba Mubnnoa   ...   ...   10   9   4   1   24

Mateawa. Ohau   ...   ...   16   8   25

Ngstitukorehe,Ngati- Waikawa   ...   ...   2'7   14   7   3   51

•                     webiwehi

   Ngaytapn   ... Pukekarain ...   ...   20   22   • 5   9   56

•                    Npti.kkorebe, Nga- Otaki   ...   ...   62   54   36   42   194 tithe., Ngatimnio-

take, andRgatipare

•                    Ngatikikopiri   ......   •..   7   7   2   ...   16

•               •   - Ngatibuis   ... Sanaa   ...   \_.   20   14   3   6   43

Ngatitoa   ... Ngatitoa   ... Waikanae   ...   ...   15   10   5   4   34

Ngatiawa   ... Ngatiaws.   ......   ...   18   15   7   7   47

... Whareros   ...   ...   6   6   4   4   20

Ngatitoa   ... Ngatitoa .   ... Wainui   ...   ...   2   3   6

,,   .., Forint&   ...   Y3   22   8   4   60

953   731 . 312 I259   2,255

HAMLET DISTRICT.    --

Rgatimara   ...   ...   /lanais   ...   .-   39   14   6   5   64

Parawai   ...   ...   20   11   7   6   43 •
•••

.   ...   Kupata   ...   ... - 16   13   3   4   36

•

   -   Kirikiri   ...   ...   35   27   8   6   76

•

   ...   Puriri   ...   ...   11   7   2   .   2   22

\_   .   ...   Blkutaia   ...   ...   15   12   3   3   33

   ...   Aroha   ...   ...   49   32   9   8   98

Tawora (regarded as appertaining to Ngati, Manaia   ...   ...   22   16   9   7   64
mart Tribe)

Ngatitamatera   ...   ...   Cabbage Bay ...   ...   15   12   8   6   41 -

-   ...   Papaaroha   ...   ...   6   4   8   2   16

.   —   Motutapere ...   ...   3   2   7

   •••   Matariki   ...   ...   8   ...   5

   ...   Waioma   ...   ...   1   1   \_.   z..   2

.   ... \_   Somata   ...   ...   15   11   5   4   35

   ...   Ohinemuri   ...   ...   74   62   16   11   152 -

Waihi   ...   ...   34   26   8   6   74
...

Ngatihako (regarded as subject to Ngatits- Waihou   ...   ...   23   19   ' 4   5   51
maters)

Ngatiwhansungs ...   ...   Waian.   ...   .-   22   17   15   12   66

   ...   Kerala   ...   ...   3   3   1   -'   7

   ...   Waikawan   —   ...

Ngatipoe,   ...   ...   Te Roo-a-Tainui   20   210

-.   90   70   .S   9

   30 .   2

   Waitokaroru ...   ...   6   6   3   2   17
Mast.: It has not I been possible to obtain accurate information re-

specting the Nga.tipoa resident up the Piako River at Te Hoe-a-

Tainni. I think, however, the number as shown above is about   •

correct. There are a few Ohinemuri people there belonging to   .

Ngatitomahua, in all about 18 men, wo men, and children.

Ngatipona   ...   ...   Kennedy Bay   -.   43   26   15   9   93

-   ...   Mataros   ...   -.   11   9   6   6   31

   ...   From East Cape, attend-   38   26   9   8   81

-   ing N. L. Court

Ngatikea   ...   ...   Oros   ...   ...   5   4   1   1   n -

   Ngatibei...   • Mercury Bay ..   ...   11   9   4   4   28

   Members of different tribes from a distance Various places ...   50   ...   ...   ...   50

engaged in gum-dig ging and timber trade   district

Half-castes   . ...   Various places throughout   13   9   11   7   40
district

•            •   677 I443   187   144 1,451

t .

-   TATIRLITGA DISTRICT.

Ngaiterangi   — Ngatimateki   ... Omomatua ...   ...   19   19   1   6   45 -

   Matekiwaho   ...„,   —   ...   8   6   2   3   18

Ngatiwhainos • ... Maungatapu ...   ...   30   34   15   9   88

•              --, ”   NgatThe   ......   23   2   47

•               .   Ngaiterangi   ... Wbareroa-AptIi   ...   61   47   9   14   131 •

   Materawabo   ... Matapihi   ...   23   7   10   69

Whanautawbao ... Rangiwara ...   ...   26   19   10   10   • 65

   Ngaitaahi   ... Hairini   ...   ...   30   22   15   20   87 -

Ngatitamarawaho ... Huns18   14   17   7   66

—   • • •

Ngatibangstan   ... Petersham, Opounia ...   39   29   16   23   107

Ngatipukenga   ... Ngapeke   ...   ...   31   18   6   6   60

•              .   Ngatikahn   ... Rangiwaea, Potemihi ...   10   12   2   4   28

- -   . 17rungawera   ... Katikati, Tuhua   ...   19   15   3   3   40 -

Source: Census of 1878, showing 'tribal' numbers in 'Hauraki District' (AJHR 1878 G2)

20

The Regional Population

suspicion. The table is described as 'an approximate estimate' and the figures vary from the precise (down to the last digit) to whole thousands. As the conditions which prevented an attempt at a census in 1864 and 1871 would also have obtained in 1867, and as the factors making for a decline were still potent in the late 1860s, the figure of 3,670 should be disregarded (Census of New Zealand, 1864; Statistics of New Zealand, 1867; Census of New Zealand, 1871).

2.13 An official report on the Coromandel district in 1870 gives a population of 28o (AJHR 1871 F4). This is probably the same district as Fenton's Coromandel, for the reporting official compares his total with Fenton's figure of 351. This points to a decline of around zo%, perhaps not unreasonable in the light of the events of the i86os—war, blockade, gold rushes, land purchasing and Pakeha settlement. If this percentage decline is applied to Fenton's (adjusted) Hauraki total of 2,500, it leads to a total for 1870 of around 2,000. This is no more than a guess, but one not out of keeping with later figures.

The 'tribal' censuses, 1874-1881

2.14 Three censuses, those of 1874, 1878 and 1881, present statistics on Maori population under tribal and sub-tribal headings, while at the same time relating this information to regions which are named but not defined. There is considerable variation in the tribal names used from one census to another; these inconsistencies suggest, first, that the enumerators were uncertain about tribal nomenclature, and second, that for the sake of statistical convenience they imposed a rather limited schema upon a much more intricate

social reality (AJHR 1874 G7, 1878 G2, 1881 G3).

2.15 These 'tribal' statistics will not be used to attempt any estimates of iwi and hapu numbers. However, because there are no other statistics for the period, and because upon a close examination they take on a regional rather than a tribal look, an effort will be made to use them to indicate a regional trend over the period. In each of the three censuses the places of residence of the specified tribal groups are given. These, insofar as they could be located, provide a broad picture of the region covered. Though there are variations from census to census, a recognisable 'Hauraki' does emerge from the process. The 'region' of 1874 includes the whole of the Coromandel Peninsula south to a line from Waihi beach to Te Aroha, as well as the southern shores of the Firth, going as far south as Te Hoe-a-Tainui and on its western side to Waiheke Island. The 'region' of 1878 appears to be less extensive—no place of residence on the western side of the Firth occurs, but it also goes south to include Te Hoe-a-Tainui. The 1881 'region', by contrast, closely resembles that of 1874, though it also goes further south. If allowance is made for the restricted 1878 boundaries, the censuses appear to deal with an area which may be reasonably identified with 'Hauraki'.

2.16 In 1874 the enumerator was E.W. Puckey, the Native Agent at Thames. He estimated a total of 1,814 for the region; this included 3o designated 'Waikato' and 150

21

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

described as 'gum diggers from various parts'. The 1874 census is believed to have underestimated the total Maori population; it should be adjusted upwards by perhaps 5% (see Pool, p. 76; Table 5.2 gives reported and adjusted figures and 'best' estimates). If that adjustment is made for Hauraki the total would rise to just over 1,900. When this adjusted figure is set beside the adjusted Fenton figure of 2,500, a regional population decline of 24%, or 1.4% a year results. This accords with Pool's statistics which suggest that the Maori population as a whole declined at an annual rate of about 1.5% over this period (Pool, p. 75, Table 5.1).

2.17 Puckey was again responsible for the Hauraki figures in the 1878 census. His first table of 'tribal' numbers (he also gives a table relating to `Ngati Maru' as one of a number of 'principal tribes) is given under the heading 'Hauraki District' and so allows comparison with the tables of 1878 and 1881. This table gives a total of 1,451, which includes 5o gum and timber workers identified as 'different tribes from a distance'. But the places of residence specified in the table exclude the whole of the western side of the Firth; in 1874 25o people were listed as resident in this area. Further, the 1878 census probably under-estimated the total Maori population by more than 5%. If this regional figure is adjusted to allow for this under-estimate and for the exclusion of places of residence to the west of the Firth, a total of around 1,700 results. This adjusted total does not suggest more than a moderate decline since 1874.

2.18 In 1881 the enumerator was the new Native Agent, G.T. 'Wilkinson, at this time still resident in Thames; the area is designated 'Thames District'. The places of residence given suggest a district much like that of 1874, with the major exception that it excludes the area north of Wharekawa in the Firth and also Waiheke. The total is given at 1,637; this includes 5o gum diggers described as Te Arawa 'and others', so 'Waikato and others' and a few more from outside the region. For all Maori, the 1881 census is considered to be only a slight under-estimate; applied to the region this would not materially affect the total as returned. This suggests a slight decline from the adjusted total for 1878.

2.19 For the Maori population as a whole, Pool describes a rapid decline from 1840 to 1878 followed by a slower decline from 1878 to 1891 with a recovery in numbers setting in from 1891 on (Pool, pp. 6o, 75). The earlier part of this pattern seems reasonably applicable to the Hauraki region. In summary, the figures, as returned and as adjusted, are as follows:

1874   returned 1814 adjusted c.19oo

1878   1451   c.I7oo

1881   1637   c.i600

2.2o The county-based figures that follow, which are considerably higher, make it clear that the two series, 1874 to 1881, and 1886 to 1916, cannot be readily linked. It is possible, perhaps likely, that the enumerators for the earlier period were distracted from giving a reliable regional count by a concern for the collection of 'tribal' numbers and did not look closely enough at people from 'outside' tribes resident in the region. Certainly, the

22

The Regional Population

later censuses suggest that there were higher numbers of 'outside' tribal members in the region than the 1874-1881 returns suggest.

Census returns for counties, 1886-1916

2.21 Counties were established in 1876 and statistics relating to them may be used to present a reasonably consistent picture over time, for though the number of counties increased it did so in the main by sub-division within the boundaries originally set. The county population figures used here are for 'geographical' counties—ie. they include the populations of interior boroughs and town districts. These administrative units had a Pakeha, not a Maori, rationale. Much of the Hauraki rohe was included in the original two counties of Coromandel and Thames. These two had become three by 1886, with Ohinemuri carved out of Thames. By 1916, still largely within the original boundaries, Great Barrier and Franklin had become separate counties. In addition, separate figures are given from time to time for Waiheke and 'Islands of the Gulf'; however, they are so small that they hardly affect the general picture. In this report, most attention will be paid to a group of 'core' counties, Coromandel, Thames and Ohinemuri (together with Great Barrier and Waiheke), because their relationship with the Hauraki rohe is relatively unambiguous.

TABLE 3: HAURAKI MAORI POPULATION IN COUNTIES, 1886-1916

1. Core   1886   1891   1896   19o1   1906   1911   1916

Great Barrier   112(1)   1621)   65   37   41   72   83

Waiheke   –   –   59   70   –c2)

   54   31(3)

Coromandel   590   615   682   579   695   498   298

Thames   1,222   844   1,067   829   774   770   665

Ohinemuri   484   512   503   646   675   661   690

   2,408   2,133   2,376   2,161   2,185   2,055   1,767

2. Fringe   1886   1891   1896   1901   1906   1911   1916

Waitemata   193   246   276   175   189   186   392

Eden   141   16o   204   245   282   372   139

Manukau   658   484   694   774   678   776   258

Franklin   –   –   –   –   –   629 (4)

Waikato   446   565   335   i,008   838   603   528

   1,438   1,455   1,509   2,202   1,987   1,937   1,946

Notes

1. Waiheke included in Great Barrier

2. Waiheke included in Eden

3. Designated 'Islands in Hauraki Gulf

4. Previously included in Manukau

Source: Census ofNew Zealand for specified years

23

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

2.22 However, these counties leave out the area to the west and south-west of the Firth. The seaward fringes of Manukau, Franklin and Waikato are within the traditional rohe and Hauraki people undoubtedly lived there; Puckey and Wilkinson enumerated people from this area in their 'Hauraki' and 'Thames' counts. These counties, and probably also Eden and Waitemata to the north, would have contained a number of Hauraki people. Accordingly some attention will also be paid to the Maori population of these 'fringe' counties, even though there is no way of distinguishing their Hauraki component.

2.23 The following figures summarise information which is given in full in Table 3. The census totals for the counties defined as 'core' above are:

1886   2,408

1891   2,133

1896   2,376

1901   2,161

1906   2,185

1911   2,055

1916   1,767

The fairly high figure for 1886 is possibly an over-estimate but even if it is discounted considerably it represents a significant increase on the adjusted 'tribal/district' figure of about 1,600 calculated for 1881. Pool considers that the Maori censuses of 1896 and 1916 are 'under-counts' (Pool, p. 71)—this, if it is applied to this part of the Hauraki region, suggests a significant increase in the mid-189os followed by a decline (but less far-reaching than the 1916 return would suggest) in the early zoth century. As the next paragraph will suggest, this decline is likely to have been caused by out-migration, probably in search of work as opportunities declined in the 'core' counties.

2.24 The Maori population of the counties described above as 'fringe' is given below; again, full information is set out in the attached table. At this time the level of Maori urbanisation was low, and the greater number of the people counted in this table were in Manukau, Franklin (part of Manukau until 1916) and Waikato.

1886   1,438

1891   1,455

1896   1,509

1901   2,202

1906   1,987

1911   1,937

1916   1,946

If the returns for 1896 and 1916 are taken as under-counts, the overall picture is of a steadily increasing Maori population in these counties on the western and southern borders of the Hauraki rohe. It is likely that the outward movement of Hauraki people

24

The Regional Population

contributed to this increase—they had been showing considerable mobility since the earlier i9th century. As well, a significant number of Hauraki people would have been normally resident in those parts of these 'fringe' counties closer to the Firth. In general terms, these figures suggest for this 4o year period something in the vicinity of a 25% decrease in the Maori population of the 'core' counties, accompanied by an increase of over 3o% in the 'fringe' counties. Taking the two groups of counties together, the figures suggest a modest overall decrease in the range of 3-4%.

2.25 The possibility of a modest decline, and at best a stable situation, for the period after the 189os does not fit the overall picture given by Pool of a general increase beginning in the 189os and suggests that the Hauraki region goes against the nationwide trend. This continuing decline could not be accounted for by out-migration to places beyond the two groups of counties. For three of the censuses in the period under consideration, those of 1891, 1896 and 1901, the census-takers (as well as giving the returns cited above) reverted to the earlier practise of giving returns under 'principal tribes'—in this case `Ngati Maru', probably as a statistical shorthand term for the main body of Hauraki Maori. The numbers of people so identified who lived outside the 'core' and 'fringe' counties taken together are so small-119 in both 1891 and 1896, and io8 in 19o1—that, even allowing for some under-estimation, out-migration to more distant places cannot have contributed much.

2.26 It is likely, then, that the Hauraki Maori population was either stable or declining during the period covered by these censuses, from 1886 to 1916. If the explanation does not lie in out-migration, it can only lie in local conditions. The normal demographic explanation would be in terms of the relationship between birth rates and death rates. A high death rate accompanied by a low birth rate leads to a sharp decline in overall numbers; a shift in either (such as a decrease in mortality or an increase in fertility) will either slow down the decline or turn it into an increase. A high death rate accompanied by a high birth rate is generally regarded as leading to a fairly stable population, one which can do little more than replace itself. The numbers born into Maori families (but not always surviving past infancy) were almost certainly large during this period. But a high incidence of sickness and death especially among the young is also evident. The health situation described in a later section of this report is not out of keeping with the conclusion drawn here from the census statistics, of a regional Maori population either static or experiencing a slight decline in the later i9th and early loth centuries.

2.27 By contrast, it is usually considered that the Maori population as a whole began a small but steady increase around 1891. Though the difference between the regional and the national situation is not spectacular, it is enough at least to raise the possibility that Hauraki Maori experienced the general Maori predicament rather more severely than many others. This could be explained in terms of the relationship between European immigration and Maori ill-health. 'The influx of colonists ... subjected Maori to ever-increasing risks of exposure to diseases against which they had no immunity' ... (Pool,

25

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

p. 62). The Hauraki region experienced a major and rapid European influx in the later i9th century, while retaining a sizeable Maori population. (The comparative population figures given in the previous section illustrate this situation.) The region, too, was close to the country's largest urban centre, Auckland. It could be that Pakeha not only overwhelmed Maori numerically and economically, but also, through the infections they brought with them, exercised an unusually adverse effect upon their health.

26

3. THE WORLD OF WORK

3.1 Though no statistical demonstration is possible, it is reasonable to conclude that the Hauraki Maori population underwent a considerable decline between the 183os and the end of the i9th century. Further, it is reasonable to conclude that the considerably larger pre-colonial population was equipped with the resources and the skills needed to sustain itself. Even though early i9th century experiences—warfare, exile and disease—had almost certainly reduced that population by the mid-century, it was still (if the evidence has any reliability at all) nearly twice the size in 1840 that it would become in about 1890. The larger population of earlier times was better equipped with the resources and skills to maintain itself than the much reduced population of the later—but not very much later—period. What that larger population, of course, lacked was the capacity to protect itself from diseases of which it had had no prior experience.

3.2 This conclusion does not imply a belief that pre- and early colonial Maori enjoyed something close to an ideal age. By some accounts, Maori life was characterised by arduous toil, a short average life expectancy and regular warfare, exile and enslavement. But while traditional Maori society should not be idealised, nor should an anachronistic approach which compares that society unfavourably with the conveniences and comforts of the later zoth century be allowed to cause confusion. Early Maori possessed a stable communal social order and a body of traditional skills well designed to utilise the natural resources of sea and soil. As their commercial dealings with the early colonists demonstrated, Hauraki Maori also displayed a marked capacity to integrate their economic activities with the novel opportunities presented by a commercial market. The early entrepreneurial flair shown by Maori in trade with Auckland and in the beginnings of the timber trade illustrates a capacity for adaptation and self-reliance which, in the event, were to be marginalised, perhaps for a time negated, by the drastic effects of later colonisation.

3.3 In 19th and early zoth century New Zealand the land and its varied yields—minerals and timber as well as agricultural and pastoral products—were at the heart of the economy. The loss of by far the greater part of these resources is the basic economic development shaping the situation of Hauraki Maori. It is unlikely, further, that they acquired to any major extent the skills needed to utilise the land they retained for

27

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

more than mere subsistence. The loss of land had been accompanied by additional changes—notably an involvement in an exploitative economy which offered short-term gains—which would have diminished the incentive to acquire new skills for a new economy. As a result, the short-term gains turned into long-term impoverishment. The consequence, by the end of the century, was the loss of most of the resources together with a lack of the skills to utilise what was left of the land. The overall picture is one of decline from a situation in which, only a little more than a half-century before, they had dealt efficiently with an earlier form of the same capitalist economy.

3.4 The New Zealand state bears some responsibility both for bringing about this situation and for doing little to rectify it. It played a pre-eminent role in the extensive land alienation underlying economic decline and it actively fostered, through its land purchasing activities, a debilitating dependence upon delusory short-term financial gains. Further, successive governments paid little attention to Maori needs in a new environment. This contrasts with the attention paid by the same governments to the needs of Pakeha. Though not as active as they were to become in the second quarter of the loth century, governments were not at all inactive in promoting Pakeha land settlement and farm efficiency. Schemes for closer land settlement proliferate from the 188os. From the 189os onwards the Department of Agriculture encouraged settlers to improve production levels, especially in the case of refrigerated dairy exports. Maori were not included in land settlement schemes and few (with the possible exception of Ngati Porou on the East Coast) were in a position to take advantage of the export market.

3.5 During the second half of the 19th century Hauraki Maori had been drawn into a cash economy; within it they were seriously disadvantaged participants. The returns from gold cessions, timber licences and land sales had been in good measure retained by a small number of individuals; insofar as there was an element of trickle-down the gains proved temporary as well as meagre. Most had to rely upon traditional food gathering and their remaining land for small-scale cropping, and, for an irregular cash income, upon whatever work they could find on the roads and other public works, the farms and the gumfields. The question then arises: what supplementary sources of income were available to help them deal with the new economy and its demands? What other opportunities were there?

3.6 Evidence is not plentiful. Though policy makers and administrators were interested in employment, they did not set about assembling detailed information as a basis for policy, least of all for Maori. Though the Department of Labour was set up in 1893, charged to assist the unemployed to find work, its reports on the numbers of people assisted in finding work do not identify recipients according to ethnicity. It is unlikely that many Maori were affected; the overwhelming concern of the Department was with the urban unemployed at a time when few Maori lived in towns. Just as land settlement policies were aimed at Pakeha settlers, employment policies were aimed at Pakeha workers.

28

The World of Work

3.7 Research has to depend upon bits of anecdotal information and upon the snapshots taken every five years by the census. But the census does not include Maori in those occupational returns which are of some utility in investigating the employment of Pakeha. Further, while the mainstream census (ie. of the population designated `European') is often accompanied by extensive analysis, the Maori census is normally no more than bare series of tables set out in a brief appendix, together with some very general comments from the enumerators. It is worth emphasising that the two main sources of information on 'the world of work', each an agency of government, do not consider Maori to be significant enough to merit more than a series of brief and general remarks.

3.8 In broad terms, the potential sources of Maori employment may be readily identified—gum digging, public works, drainage schemes, farm labouring including seasonal work, and (probably) casual labouring work in general. These are also the ways in which the humbler elements of the rural Pakeha population made, or sought to make, a living. That fact in itself, given the disproportion of the two populations and the existence of continuing and at times high unemployment in the region, meant that Maori job seekers experienced a good deal of competition.

The regional labour market

3.9 This examination of the labour market in Hauraki is derived from the fragmentary comments of local officials in the annual reports of the Labour Department. In 1893 it is reported from Auckland that gum exports were increasing and the number of men kept in work in this way was growing. But in the following year the fragility of this industry became evident; a sudden fall in price had 'straitened the gum-diggers of Auckland and the northern fields' (AJHR 1893 HE), 1894 F16). The first report from Thames in 1897 noted that a depression in mining had thrown 'a great number of men out of employment', that the building trade was slackening and that the outlook for the coming winter was bad (AJHR 1897 (s2) H6). A year later, many miners were leaving the district, though railway works (the Thames-Paeroa line) and road works were providing employment for some ex-miners. But prospects for the future were poor because 'very few miners are working'. Gum digging did not affect the labour market because it was conducted 'principally by Maoris' on the eastern coast—an indication that the labour force which concerned the inspector was a Pakeha one (AJHR 1898 H6).

3.10 There are no further reports from Thames until 19oz. The depression in gold mining which had lasted for some years was continuing, but timber milling, bush work, fishing, road works and flax milling were doing better (AJHR 1902 HD. Maori were involved in flax milling to some extent, but it was a rather marginal industry (BAAA 1001 596a; Thames Advertiser, 6 Oct 1893). A report of 1905 (for the Auckland district as a whole) indicated that a 'very large drop in the price of kauri-gum' had caused many to leave the gumfields and seek work elsewhere (AJHR 1905 HID. Again with reference to the

29

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

whole Auckland district, the 1906 report repeats what had often been noted earlier, that numbers of Australian and other job seekers were arriving and finding work in country occupations—bush felling, navvying, draining, and farm work (AJHR 1906 HID. This suggests that competition for work of this kind was fairly intense in the earlier loth century The numbers of job seekers were swelled in 1909 when the completion of the Main Trunk railway sent many into Auckland; they were sent on to the North Auckland line (AJHR 1909 HID. The labour market seems to have picked up in the next few years

(AJHR 1910, 1911, 1912 HID.

3.11 For most of the two decades beginning in 1893 there seems to have been a depressed labour market, brought about by shrinking job opportunities and a large pool of surplus labour swelled by the arrival of immigrants, especially from Australia. It was the practice of the Labour Department to send men from the cities to rural districts, especially newly-opened ones where there were more job opportunities on road works, bush clearing, fencing and grass sowing. It is likely that such work was more available in the developing dairy districts to the south in the Waikato region. The census data reported earlier strongly suggests that Maori also moved south in search of work. Certainly, the Miners' Union did not consider Thames to be suitable for the absorption of surplus labour. As soon as the Auckland Bureau of the Department of Labour was set up the union requested information from it about jobs for the unemployed of Thames (Thames Advertiser, 3o Jan 1893).

3.12 Two sources of employment will be examined in the remainder of this section, public works and gum digging. There is a reasonable amount of evidence about them; it is likely that they were of considerable importance and lasted through the period under consideration. But it should be added that casual and seasonal work on farms was also important in recently settled New Zealand districts at this time. No information on Maori involvement in this region has been found, but it was almost certainly available. In addition, there will be some discussion of Maori farming.

Public works

3.13 There is some reason to suspect that in relation to public works employment Maori were not, at least by the end of the century, treated on equal terms. Two items of evidence from the 189os point in this direction. In 1893 the Thames Advertiser (4 Feb 1893) found it newsworthy to report that the contractors for the Rotorua railway had been 'obliged' to employ a hundred Maori workers, thanks to the shortage of 'good men' in the district and added that Maori had in fact been found as efficient as Europeans. That it was a general view that Maori were not 'good men' for such employment is also suggested by the events associated with the epidemic at Manaia in 1898. Though the local teacher, C.A. Walter, found road work for some Maori, this would have been to the surprise of both the Under-Secretary for Education and the magistrate at Thames, who believed such work to be reserved for Pakeha (see below, para. 5.35).

30

The World of Work

3.14 This situation contrasts with that obtaining in the earlier part of the period, when the local economy was booming thanks to gold and timber, when competition from a smaller Pakeha population would have been less acute and when public works jobs were used as an inducement to sell land. Puckey reported in 1878 that there was a good deal of road and bridge construction in the Thames county using Maori labour (which was generally satisfactory). Those taking this work were 'Natives who have always stood by us'; they had met with opposition from other Maori who belonged to 'the anti-progress party'. Maori were also at work on the construction of the road south from Coromandel; Puckey believed that opposition to road building was declining (AJHR 1878 GIA).

3.15 In the following year Puckey reported, with some pessimism, that Hauraki Maori would not 'settle down to industrial habits' as long as they had land left 'to hypothecate to settlers or storekeepers'. As if to contradict himself, he went on to say 'But they do like employment in making roads ... it would be good sound policy to employ them always in forming lines of road ... over their own land.' The prospect of work of this kind had been held out at the highest government level: 'I may say they are anxiously waiting for employment on the Thames and Waikato Railway, in accordance with promises made them by the Hon. the Native Minister [John Sheehan], and which have been of material assistance to myself in acquiring the land for the line of railway... at a very reasonable rate.' (AJHR 1879 GD. This adds another dimension to the expectations of shared benefit held out to Maori as an inducement to co-operate and as a means of getting good terms for the government.

3.16 A number of factors appear to have caused a shrinkage of this kind of employment for Maori towards the end of the century. The retrenchment of the 188os brought a decline in government and local body spending on public works; this may have increased the dependence of Maori on the gum industry, though there is some suggestion that they preferred it, at least when prices were good. With the growth of Pakeha unemployment in the 188os, the practice of giving preference to Pakeha job seekers would have grown. Puckey and Wilkinson both report on the adverse effects of retrenchment (AJHR 1878 GIA, 1881 G8). The evidence for an element of discrimination has been noted above. An additional scrap of evidence suggests that Maori were aware of that. In 1899 Manaia Maori offered to help build a bridge for their school and insisted that the work 'must not be given to a Pakeha' (BAAA row 297a). But too extreme a picture should not be drawn; some Maori would have continued in this sort of work; in 1908 it is recorded that Te Kerepehi parents were employed on drainage works many miles from the school (BAAA 1001 596b). Such employment probably provided further opportunities in the early zoth century when the Piako swamps were bring drained WEIR 1911 H14A).

The kauri gum industry

3.17 By the 189os conditions of work on the gumfields were notorious enough to prompt the appointment of two Royal Commissions of inquiry, which reported in 1893 and 1898. Neither held hearings in the southern districts but they do report some

31

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

relevant information and some findings which appear to relate to the gumfields as a whole. The southern fields extended from the peninsula south and west of the Hauraki region into the Bay of Plenty and Waikato. The number of Maori at work on this field in 1893 may be estimated at around 325 from figures given by the Royal Commission on the gum industry (AJHR 1893 H24). The Commission reported that there were 130 `equivalent adult males' working full-time—ie. two-fifths of the numerical total reduced to take into account part-time work and the work of women and children. The same formula was applied to 'settlers who dig' (ie. not including full-time Pakeha gum diggers) for whom the numerical total would be just under 16o. The total labour force on the Coromandel and Waikato field was reckoned to be 1,118 (compare this with the north of Auckland figure: 5,779). Not all the Maori affected would have been members of Hauraki iwi; census enumerators regularly note the presence of other Maori, especially Te Arawa, in the Coromandel gum diggings and the presence of Hauraki Maori in neighbouring districts, possibly in search of gum.

3.18 The 1898 Royal Commission (referring to the northern fields) stated that Maori `take to gum-digging only when their crops prove a failure or their stock of provisions gets exhausted'—circumstances which would have been common enough in the south as well. `Wages' (ie. returns from the sale of gum) were said to be around 27s a week, presumably for 'the equivalent adult male' (AJHR 1898 H12). This suggests that even in good times—when gum was available and export prices reasonable—cash incomes were still distinctly low. Wilkinson reported in 1886 that Maori preferred 'the independent life of gum-digging, at which some of them earn very good wages', to railway construction work (AJHR 1886 GD. There was, however, little construction work available in the economical 188os. Gum diggers were not, strictly speaking, wage earners but small entrepreneurs selling the gum they collected. But, because of their dependence through indebtedness upon often unscrupulous dealers who were also storekeepers and publicans, they were in fact at the mercy of the dealers. The Secretary of Labour, Edward Tregear, argued that legislation affecting wages should be extended to 'other forms of employment through which people were trapped in debt to their suppliers', and instanced gum diggers and small farmers (AJHR 1894 H6). Pakeha as well as Maori diggers would have benefited from such protection, but this advice and the further suggestions of the 1898 Royal Commission were ignored. CAJHR 1898 HI2).

3.19 Many more Maori than these figures suggest would have had some part in the gum trade. The 1893 total is no more than a snapshot; over the period as a whole much greater numbers would have been drawn in by the lack of other resources. The activity probably had an appeal, too, as one which involved family groups. But high prices seldom lasted and over time the price level fluctuated greatly. Supplies of gum ran out in specific localities. Working and living conditions were commonly poor and unhealthy. Many diggers existed in a condition of debt dependency on storekeepers/dealers. School attendance suffered as families moved off. Probably, too, the cohesion of larger groups, hapu and iwi, declined as individuals and family groups travelled to the gumfields.

32

The World of Work

3.2o Dependence on gum digging extends across the later 19th century into the loth. In 1870 it was reported that many `Queenite' Maori were digging in the Katikati district (AJHR 1870 A16). Wilkinson reported in 1881 that gum digging was the preferred source of income in the district when prices were high and that large quantities were still being found CAJHR 1881 G8). A year later he reported that though agriculture was improving gum digging was taking people away from the land AJHR 1882 G1). Later in the decade he described how Hauraki Maori preferred to go off to the hills and dig gum in small parties rather than cultivate food in communal groups, often staying away from their homes for months at a time (AJHR 1887 G1). Many Maori (like many Pakeha) would have combined cultivation with gum digging. The plight of Kennedy Bay Maori in 1898 was attributed to the simultaneous failure of crops and lack of gum (JI 1898/868). It was evidently of importance to both Te Kerepehi and Manaia Maori early in the loth century (BAAA Ioca 596a, I00I 297a). In 1903 Opoutere Maori were described as both `settlers' (ie. farmers) and gum diggers (BAAA 1001404b).

3.21 Many poorer Pakeha settlers who could be similarly described competed with Maori for access to the gumfields. There is some suggestion that there was an element of territorial segregation. When, in 1893, the Woodlands and Tauhei blocks (owned by the New Zealand Land Association) were opened to diggers, Maori were limited as to the area they could use. When a new block was opened for their use, 400 waited for the moment and rushed the field, much to the amusement of the reporter (Thames Advertiser, 25 Feb 1893). In depressed times—this was the year in which the Miners' Union asked the Auckland branch of the Labour Department for information on job opportunities for its unemployed members—Maori appear to have been restricted in their access to this resource.

Farming activities

3.2z Information on Maori farming is sparse and for the most part general. Until 1892, Native Agents from time to time reported in broad terms on the matter, but the abolition of the Native Department in that year caused this source to dry up. Census enumerators give some information occasionally, as do other officials such as school teachers. Unluckily the Stout/Ngata Commission of 1907-1908, which reported so extensively upon some parts of the country, had only one sitting (at Coromandel) and gave little information. A possible reason for this lack is instructive—among the tasks of the Commission was to report on Maori land which could be leased for settlement, but there was little Maori land left in the Hauraki region.

3.23 Until well into the zoth century Maori were a rural people. Census returns showing Maori population in boroughs and town districts are available only from 1926; in that year they show only a small Maori urban population in this region-14% in boroughs and town districts within the counties of Ohinemuri, Hauraki Plains, Thames and Coromandel. Outside the larger centres the urban-rural distinction was not marked

33

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

in New Zealand at this time; many living in boroughs and town districts would in fact have been dependent upon small plots of land, raising crops and keeping a few animals. This was probably the case with Maori in the small centres of Paeroa and Thames. It is possible that some were engaged in urban pursuits, such as building, work in small factories and general labouring, but evidence of this has not been found. It seems safe to assume that until well into the zoth century Hauraki Maori lived for the most part in separate rural communities.

3.24 Land use in this period extends from simple subsistence, essentially raising crops and keeping animals for personal and family consumption, to market-related production, aimed either at a local urban market (such as Auckland) or an overseas market (for example, for wool, butter, cheese and meat). Hauraki Maori farming was overwhelmingly of a subsistence character; it is possible, however, that produce surplus to need was sold in local urban centres. Apart from that possibility, the later D9th and early loth century situation of Hauraki Maori contrasts sharply with their situation in the 185os, when they responded enthusiastically to the new Auckland urban market. Fifty years on they were small holders scratching a living and working men running a few animals and raising a few crops.

3.25 The reports of Puckey and Wilkinson, though far from detailed, give a picture from which some broad conclusions may be drawn. Early in the 187os, Puckey reported increased cropping, dairying, stock breeding, grass sowing and fencing, and the purchase of cows, horses, ploughs and harness CAJHR 1872 F3, 1873 GD. He is not specific as to locality, but this report suggests that in some places farming was market-related, perhaps in response to the increased goldfields population after the 1867 rush.

3.26 If so, this response was probably either short-lived or not widespread, or both. In the same 1873 report, he states that cultivations were being neglected due to reliance upon 'pledging their lands for sale to the Government'; three years later he comments, perhaps rather cynically, that there was little cultivation beyond that 'sufficient for a scanty subsistence' and that Maori were inclined to 'trust Providence, and the chance of duping some unlucky pakeha' (AJHR 1876 GD. An overwhelming concern with subsistence is suggested by an 1878 comment that good potato crops had placed Maori 'beyond ... absolute want' (AJHR 1878 GIA).

3.27 By 1881 Wilkinson had replaced Puckey; initially he was quite optimistic about the economic situation. Now that the easy money from land sales had dried up, Hauraki Maori were recovering their former industrious habits and growing more food on 'the small portions of land remaining in their possession' (AJHR 1881 G8). The improvement continued into the early 188os; Maori were 'fairly industrious' although the profits of gum digging were taking them away from their land; too many were relying upon gum and 'what revenue they can obtain from Pakeha sources', an unexplained remark which may point to mining and timber employment and to farm work—though, too, it may refer to land selling (AJHR 1882 GI, 1884 GD.

34

The World of Work

3.28 The 1886 census included land use statistics relating to Maori which, for all the likely errors in enumeration, give a reliable general picture of the situation in the two counties, Thames and Coromandel, which then made up the greater part of the Hauraki region. Taken together, 1,812 Maori people raised crops on a mere 493 acres (of which 327 acres were in potatoes); they had just over 236 acres in sown grasses, as few as 125 sheep and 831 cattle and as many as 2,017 pigs. All these indicators point to an economy not just of a subsistence kind, but at a very low level of subsistence. When other forms of employment failed, as they often did, the situation would be dire—and it should be emphasised that the amount of land in Maori hands was to shrink even further after this year.

3.29 The evidence, though patchy and incomplete, is enough to suggest that while subsistence farming of a very primitive kind remained basic, in the early years of the gold rushes some Maori again became energetic farmers with an eye upon a local market. However, it also suggests that land sales and gum earnings diverted attention from farming. Some Maori, it is probable, took advantage or tried to do so of the employment opportunities presented by settlement. But a couple of items of early zoth century evidence would support the view that, although subsistence was basic, the earlier spirit of enterprise was not altogether lost. In 1908 Stout and Ngata reported that 2,500 acres had been recently broken in at Kennedy Bay and that there was 'fairly successful farming' to be seen at Ti Kouma and Manaia (AJHR 1908 cis). And in 1910, the parents of Puketui (Broken Hills), applying for a native school, described themselves, perhaps with some pride, as 'permanent settlers at this place. We have lands of our own, and lands leased by

US from Govt' (BAAA I00I 487b).

3.3o The overall conclusion to be drawn from a slender body of evidence is that, at best, Hauraki Maori shared a place at the lower end of the socio-economic scale with their more disadvantaged Pakeha neighbours. As late as the 193os it could be asserted that Maori did not need the relief from unemployment available to Pakeha because they had land of their own and could live off it. Perhaps, at least in some cases, that could be said of Hauraki Maori a generation or so earlier. Some communities, however, had no land or very little; even those which had some were vulnerable to crop failures which devastated entire villages. On the other side of the coin, their Pakeha equivalents appear to have enjoyed a prior claim to public works employment and could at least hope for some assistance from small farm settlement schemes. Further, with private employment, it may be conjectured that they benefited from an element of discrimination.

3.31 Further, the government's approach to the problem of unemployment, as shown by the Department of Labour, is informed by a concern for surplus urban-dwellers, the overwhelming majority of whom were Pakeha. In Departmental reports there are no figures specific to the Thames district, only aggregate Auckland figures, but it is reasonable to suppose that some Thames Pakeha benefited from its operations. Without trying to minimise the sufferings of the Pakeha poor, it may be concluded that they had some advantages which were not enjoyed to the same extent, or at all, by Maori in an equivalent or a worse situation.

35

4. SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

4.1 The state acknowledged a duty to make special provision for the education of Maori children. Those responsible for policy and administration had a clear intention to equip young Maori with at least the minimum body of skills believed to be essential in their transformed environment. Much the same overall goal informed the provision of elementary education for Pakeha children; the state's concern with 'education for all' was to turn children, however lowly their status, into citizens possessing the elementary skills of literacy and numeracy and the habits of industry and discipline. In the special case of native schools, great emphasis was placed on competence in English and the acquisition of manual skills.

4.2 In principle, elementary education in public schools was made compulsory and free in 1877; this goal, at least for Pakeha children in public schools, was close to achievement by the end of the century, thanks to a sustained anti-truancy campaign. The situation of children in native schools, directly run by the Education Department and not, as with public schools, by Education Boards, was different. Insofar as the Maori community had to provide the school site, Maori education was not wholly free. Further, non-attendance at native schools was not tackled with the same vigour. 'Free and compulsory' is a description which cannot be applied to them without qualification. As well, many Maori children attended public schools; whether truancy officers pursued their parents, or did not consider this to be part of their brief, is not clear.

4.3 While both Maori and Pakeha children were to be prepared for a useful life in an orderly society, the native schools had a special function because they took in children from largely Maori-speaking communities. The reports of the inspectors constantly insist on English as the language of instruction; it was regarded as the basic skill to be acquired. There is no evidence, at least from this region, that this goal was resisted by native school parents and committees.

4.4 The education provided for Maori children through the native school system thus occupied an ambiguous position in Maori society. It was frankly assimilationist; nevertheless, it attempted to impart skills which were accepted by the community as needed for survival in an overwhelmingly Pakeha environment. It was rigidly controlled

36

Schools and Education

from above, through the inspectorate; yet the schools became a focus of community loyalty and identity. These paradoxes will become more apparent in the discussion which follows.

4.5 The major focus here is upon a small group of six Hauraki schools jointly provided by Maori communities and the Department of Education for Maori children, but often also attended by nearby Pakeha children. Over New Zealand generally native schools were mostly to be found in districts without a large settler population and under-supplied with public schools. Such conditions did not fully obtain in the compact Hauraki region, where the two populations lived in close proximity compared, for example, with Northland and the East Coast. Most of the native schools in Hauraki were at first fairly distant from centres of Pakeha population. But as settlement spread and Pakeha enrolment increased they were, in three cases out of six, transferred to the Education Board.

4.6 As well, many Maori children attended public schools. Published reports do not give information relating to individual schools or to particular regions; accordingly there is little information on this aspect of Maori education in Hauraki. In New Zealand as a whole in 1914 there were 4,132 Maori children attending 107 native schools; in the same year 4,791 attended 565 public schools (AJHR 1914 El). The proportion of Maori children attending public schools had increased considerably over the early zoth century. If the situation in Hauraki reflected that of New Zealand as a whole, rather more than half of Maori children would have attended public schools. The proportion probably increased as Pakeha settlement increased in the early zoth century. A return published in 1900 shows that the counties of Coromandel, Thames and Ohinemuri (including interior boroughs) had 33 public schools (AJHR 1900 ED. There can be no doubt that a significant number of Maori children attended them and that their number increased with Pakeha settlement.

4.7 Some Maori parents believed that their children suffered from discrimination and hostility at public schools, and this belief fostered their loyalty to the native schools. But whether this was widely the case or not, it is reasonably certain that in public schools the assimilationist ethos would have been at least as strong and that the presence of a Pakeha majority would have placed Maori children at some disadvantage. Even if the region was not under-supplied with educational facilities for Maori children, their quality and their capacity to satisfy Maori community interests and aspirations remains open to question.

The native schools

4.8 Schools for Maori children, intended to integrate them into the new colonial world and to provide them with useful skills, begin with the Christian missions. In the 184os the colonial government began to support them financially; later some provincial governments ran schools which Maori children attended until the central government took over. From the beginnings of colonial government it was accepted that Maori

37

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

education was a proper function of the state. As early as 1853, in the first Piako deed of sale, the government promised schools and hospitals (as well as flour mills and annuities for chiefs) to Maori land sellers (Anderson). But little happened for more than three decades. There were some private fee-paying schools and some Maori children may have attended them.

4.9 In 1872 the Native Agent, E.W. Puckey, drew the attention of government to the need for Maori schools and reported that Maori had a 'growing appreciation of the advantages of education'. He hoped 'ere long to establish a school for the education of Native children at Ohinemuri.' (AJHR 1872 F3). In 1874 he expressed the hope that 'suitable reserves' of land would be kept for schools CAJHR 1874 G2). A few years later he urged that the Waste Lands Board should not sell blocks of land suitable for school purposes (AJHR 1880 G4). None of these recommendations had any result.

4.10 Though some Maori children would have been attending the provincial government's public schools by this time, Puckey's requests make it clear that there was a need for more. However, he was inclined to blame parental lethargy rather than government inaction. Some evidence, at least, does not support this somewhat severe explanation. In 1882 the communities at Te Kerepehi and Harataunga each asked for a school, but without result (BAAA I00I 596a). In not far distant Otorohanga a few years later Maori who proposed to reserve land for a school from a block passing through the Land Court changed their minds when the Department would not promise to open a school there (AJHR 1889 G3). This kind of frustration may well have been more frequent.

4.11 On one occasion the lack of a school for Maori children drew high-level political comment. In 1885 the Minister of Mines, W.J. Larnach, passed through Manaia and noted that there were many children but no school. The Native Agent, G.T. Wilkinson, when asked for comment, advised that this was because of a lack of interest on the part of the local Maori leaders. This may have been an excuse. Ten years later the community applied for a school and made its own church building available; the Manaia school opened in the church in 1897 (BAAA IOW 296d).

4.12 In the 187os and 188os Maori children do not appear to have attended public schools in great numbers. In 1874 a small number—six boys—are recorded at the Parawai provincial school (AJHR 1874 G8); when Donald McLean (Native Minister) visited this school in 1875 he heard 14 'Native children' (out of a total roll of 87) examined in reading and spelling (AJHR 1875 GZA). In the following year Wilkinson noted that 'but ten children have been ... availing themselves of the generosity of the government ...', presumably in allowing them into public schools (AJHR 1876 GD. In 1881 Wilkinson reported that 'Government schools' at Thames, Coromandel, Puriri, Hikutaia and Ohinemuri were 'open to Maori children' but that 'very few' attended—because, in his opinion, Maori parents did not value anything they did not have to pay for (AJHR 1881 G8). A year later he wrote that 'not more than two' attended the district school at

38

Schools and Education

Thames, and only irregularly (AJHR 1882 GD. He recorded a few years later that some Maori children who lived nearby attended public schools at Te Aroha, Paeroa and Parawai (AJHR 1887 GD.

4.13 The first native school in the region was set up in 1884 and was transferred to the Education Board after ten years because the Pakeha enrolment topped so%. The second school was established in 1897 and the remainder of the group early in the loth century. The following table shows the pattern of development:

Kirikiri   opened 1884   transferred to Education Board 1894

Manaia   1897

Te Kerepehi   1902   transferred to Education Board 1912

Mataora Bay   1908

Wharekawa   1908   (became Opoutere in 1912)

Te Huruhi   1911   transferred to Education Board 1917

This small total does not imply a lack of parental and community interest. During the period the Department received applications for schools from the following communities: Harataunga, Ohui, Puketui, Waitoki and Taungatara, as well as from Great Barrier, Kawa (on Great Barrier) and from Bowentown/Otawhiwhi and Matakana

Island (BAAA IOW 244b, 487b; AJHR 1901 E2, 1904 EI, 1905 ED.

4.14 The rolls of these schools in 1911 (ie. not including Kirikiri but before the transfer of two more to the Auckland Education Board) were:

Manaia   32

Te Kerepehi   z6

Mataora Bay   21

Wharekawa   z8

Te Huruhi   32

Total   139

Of this total, 21 pupils were classified as 'European' CAJHR 1912 E3). The remainder, io8, can be only a minority of the school age population of the region—the total Maori population of the three 'core' counties in 1911 was over z,000.

4.15 Hauraki in 1911 had 4.8% of the schools and 3.4% of the pupils in the native school system. The counties classified as 'core' in the population section of this report contained 4.1% of the total Maori population. Evidently, Hauraki Maori did not to a significant extent suffer from neglect in comparison with other regions, if public school as well as native school attendance is taken into account. But they would have suffered from the inadequacies of the system itself especially, perhaps, from the frustration experienced by communities which failed to secure schools of their own and by others which saw their schools pass out of their control to the Education Board.

39

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

Community interest

4.16 Though the ethos of the native school system was assimilationist, some Hauraki Maori communities showed a keen sense of identity with their schools. When in 1890 it was proposed to transfer the Kirikiri school to the Education Board, Hoani Nahe (who, with W.H. Taipari and Hori Matene, had applied for a school in the early 188os) protested vigorously to James Pope, the Department's inspector: 'This is my word to you ... and the Minister for Education your turning this school into a European one is wrong, as is also your taking away of the Maori mana over it.' (BAAA IOW 285c). Nahe was sure that Maori children did better at native schools than at public schools, where (he said) they were neglected. Some had gone to Te Aute and to 'the Auckland school' (St Stephen's?) from Kirikiri. None had from the public schools.

4.17 Kirirkiri school was not transferred to the Education Board until 1894; there were considerable wrangles over payment for the site. In 1893 Kirikiri Maori offered to hand over the school to the Board 'on condition that the children were taught as at present, and that some natives were elected on the school committee'. The Board replied that it would run the school 'on the same lines as other public schools' and pointed out that Maori could vote at elections for school committees (Thames Advertiser, ro May 1893). The Maori community clearly wished to preserve the character of the school and an element of control over it.

4.18 Twenty years later the people of Puketui applied (unsuccessfully) for a native school, arguing that the neighbouring public school, located at a mining settlement, presented an unfavourable environment: 'It is entirely due to the unfriendly and hostile attitude of the Pakeha children towards the Maori children attending that school, that the Maori children, through fear, ceased to attend the Wharekawa school.' (BAAA I00I 487b; this was neither the native school nor a later public school of that name.)

4.19 It is clear that some Maori parents valued their schools and identified with them; that they resisted transfer to Board control and the loss of their own mana; and that they believed that their children suffered when they had to attend predominantly Pakeha schools. They also chafed at the delays experienced even after the Department had agreed that a school should be set up. Their situation contrasts sharply with the speed with which public schools followed the spread of settlement. As the Auckland Education Board (responsible for the Hauraki district) put it in 189o: 'the Board has found it necessary to build and maintain schools in places where there is only a small population, in order that the settlement of the country may not be impeded. ...' (AJHR 1890 ED.

4.20 For their part, Maori communities had to make sacrifices and to work hard to make their needs known to the Department. They frequently failed in their efforts or suffered from long delays. They had to ask for a school by a petition signed by at least ten people; provide a suitable piece of land for a site from their own shrinking estate (usually of two

40

Schools and Education

to three acres); demonstrate to the inspector (whose visit might be delayed for a matter of years) that there were enough children of school age and under-25 ready to attend and a number of younger ones was thought desirable—and that parental support was likely to continue. All this contrasts sharply with the commendable zeal of the Education Board in accompanying settlement with schools as a routine procedure.

4.21 The site, once offered, had to be approved by the inspector and its tide ascertained and transferred to the Crown—in the case of Manaia three acres were transferred to the Crown for 5s. After transfer an often drawn-out process of survey, tendering and construction followed. Several years could pass between asking for a school and getting one. In the case of Mataora Bay, the initial request was made in 1903; two years later the community was still awaiting the inspector's visit. After several requests the survey was completed in 1906. In the next year it was reported that 'the Natives' were growing impatient; in 1908 the school opened with a roll of seven which grew to 18. In spite of parental defections (some sending their children to the native school at Wharekawa and others to the public school at Whangamata) the school struggled on with a small roll (II in 1914). Perhaps six years of waiting weakened parental and community support. At the very least, one may question whether the inspector had any right to complain in 1908 that the parents were not as supportive as 'the Department has a right to expect' (BAAA

I00I 329a).

4.22 Action could be swifter. The school at Te Kerepehi was opened within two years of application in 19oz. However, an earlier request had been made zo years before, possibly by the same person or family—Arapeta Te Ngahoa and Te Ngahoa Ripikoi (BAAA 1001 5962). But normally delays of some years were experienced: Kirikiri, five years between request and opening; Te Huruhi, three years; Wharekawa (Opoutere), five years; Manaia, two years (but in a church which soon proved to be an unsatisfactory building—it took a further year before a school building was erected).

4.23 Attendance at these schools fluctuated; this put them at risk as a declining roll could lead to closure. At the same time, an increasing Pakeha enrolment could lead to transfer to the Education Board. Sometimes loss of pupils was due to divisions and animosities within the Maori community. In other cases it is clear that the Maori community, through the school committee, was anxious to keep up enrolments, for example by curbing truancy. But, compared with the powers available to Board school committees, they lacked the capacity to do so effectively. Some committees wrote to the Department inquiring about their powers to require attendance (for example, Mataora Bay, BAAA 1001329a, in 1908). At Manaia in 1900 the local constable offered his services as a truancy officer, but the Department advised that while the police could help no legal proceedings could be taken (BAAA 1001 297a & b). It seems likely that this attitude was also taken to the attendance of Maori children at public schools.

4.24 Though the native schools were small and struggling institutions, subject to assimilationist pressures from the Department and its inspectors, they were institutions

41

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

with which their communities identified. The assimilationist policy was not resented or resisted—though there is one request that a teacher be appointed who was fluent in Maori. In general, it may be concluded that the number of schools provided by the state (and by the community contribution of land) fell well below the level of community demand. In addition, Maori protested when 'their' schools passed to what some regarded as alien control; they believed that in public schools their children were a disadvantaged minority at times subject to unsympathetic treatment.

4.25 The general picture of education for Maori children in the region is not a simple one. There were few native schools compared with other districts, but in those districts there may well have been fewer public schools which Maori children could attend. While the number of Maori children in Hauraki attending public schools is not given, it is probable that the total number in both school systems was quite high. In 1913, more than io,000 Maori children were attending schools of all kinds, a little over so% in public schools and a little under so% in native schools, together with a small number in mission and boarding schools. Roughly, some zo% of the Maori population as estimated by the 1911 census were in primary schools (AJHR 1913 E3). If this proportion was reflected in Hauraki, it may be concluded that there was no shortage of opportunities. Nor, on a nation-wide basis, was the financial provision for native schools low in comparison with public schools. If anything, the cost per pupil was considerably higher than in public schools, no doubt because native schools were both small and remote (calculated from figures in AJHR 1900 ED.

4.26 Nevertheless, it seems reasonable to conclude that educational provision, from the point of view of Hauraki Maori communities, was less than adequate in two ways: first, there were not enough schools with which they could identify and which they believed served their interests; and second, in public schools their children were disadvantaged and at times experienced discrimination.

42

5. HEALTH AND MEDICAL CARE

5.1 Though the size of the pre-contact Maori population remains a matter of conjecture, there is no dispute about its subsequent sharp and continuing decline. Even though New Zealand Maori did not suffer in the i9th century from 'the great apocalyptic diseases' which were so lethal elsewhere in the Pacific—malaria, bubonic plague, yellow fever, smallpox and typhus—disease was still the major cause of the decline. Early outbreaks were almost certainly limited to the coastal locations of initial contact—'each newly arrived ship brought its own cargo of viruses, bacteria and other pathogens'. At first the low density and wide dispersal of the Maori population limited the effect of these outbreaks. However, the rapid increase and spread of the settler population after 184o ended this protection and 'set up the mechanisms for the widespread exposure of Maori to imported diseases' (Pool, pp. 45-46 for quotations in this paragraph).

5.z Hauraki was affected both by the initial coastal outbreaks and by the subsequent increased exposure brought about by rapid settlement on a major scale. Among people who had not yet built up 'their basic immune stocks', (Pool, p. 87) diseases which were customary among the Pakeha who brought them had much more severe consequences. The main epidemic diseases were measles, whooping cough, typhoid, influenza, mumps and scarlet fever. Further, there was a high 'non-epidemic mortality' from bronchitis and tuberculosis (which was reported as scrofula and phthisis) (Pool, pp. 83-84 and Fig. 54. These diseases figure prominently in the Hauraki evidence cited in this report.

5.3 Officials took an interest in Maori health from the early years of government, and an especial interest in the factors making for the decline of the population. While Maori health was a cause of genuine concern, it was also a matter of anxiety because it endangered Pakeha well-being. But at the same time, high Maori mortality (and what was taken to be a decline in fertility) served to confirm the moral and physical superiority of the colonists. Given this ambivalence, between compassion, self-interest and self-congratulation, it is not surprising that Maori health presented a problem which governments found they could neither leave alone nor manage effectively.

5.4 In the early 20th century Maori health became something of a bureaucratic football, tossed to and fro between departments of state. In 1906 the responsibility was

43

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

transferred from the Justice Department (where it had gone on the demise of the Native Department in 1892) to the Health Department (where Maui Pomare had been working as the first Native Health Officer since 1901). It was returned to the reconstituted Native Department in 1909-1911. Each transfer was accompanied by sometimes acrimonious exchanges, which have left behind some useful archival traces—that, eg, in 1906 there were 38 'Medical men subsidised by government for attendance on Maori'—i6 in the South Island (with a minute Maori population) and 22 in the North Island—at an annual cost of Czo67 8s 7d. None of these subsidised doctors were located in the Thames/Hauraki district; the nearest were at Otorohanga and Whakatane (MA 21/zo for this and the next three paragraphs).

5.5 The Chief Health Officer, T.H.A. Valentine, protested in 1910 that the Department of Public Health was not responsible for medical treatment of any sort, whether for Pakeha or Maori, apart from the control of infectious diseases and matters of sanitation. But in the same year the Native Minister, James Carroll, made it clear to the Minister of Public Health that his Department was mainly concerned with the provision of medical assistance to 'Indigent Natives'—a group which had earlier been defined as the old and for whom care was provided chiefly in the form of rations. The problem, it seems fair to conclude, was one which nobody wanted to own.

5.6 In the course of this exchange Valentine asserted that 'in most parts of the Dominion no special machinery is necessary to provide medical treatment for the Natives'; only where the number of Maori was great and hospital provision was small was 'special machinery' needed. A year later, R.H. Makgill, the Auckland District Health Officer (a district that included Hauraki) expressed his vigorous dissent. Writing to the Under-Secretary of the Native Department, he noted that Maori neither registered deaths nor notified infectious diseases and argued that a new department was needed 'to break them of their uncivilized habits'. He went on: 'It is chiefly in Auckland, where typhoid is endemic among the Maoris, that one appreciates the danger of the present position.' He made it clear what he had in mind: 'They are a danger to their white neighbours. ...'

5.7 Makgill certainly believed that the health of Maori in his district was worse than that of other people and further, that Maori were a source of danger to the rest of the community. That opinion would have been supported by a teacher at an Education Board school at Manaia (or Kaiaua) in 1903, even though the danger was of a less extreme kind than typhoid. In that year T.F. Warren wrote to the Health Department asking how to proceed in order to get medicines for the 3o-4o pupils at his school. 'About half of these are Maoris and there is always more or less sickness and disease among them, and consequently considerable danger to all attending these schools. A short time ago one school had to be closed owing to the prevalence of waiakeake [hakihakid or Maori itch.' (JI 1903/634). Whether as serious as typhoid or as unpleasant as a skin infection, diseases among Maori were seen as a threat to the settler community. Such testimony leads firmly

44

Health and Medical Care

to the conclusion that in the early loth century, as subsequently, Maori health was at a lower level than Pakeha health.

5.8 Such testimony puts into perspective the consideration that the general level of health in New Zealand and in the Hauraki region was not especially high. In 1893, for example, measles was rampant throughout New Zealand, and public schools were closed from Dunedin to Auckland. In Hauraki the situation at Paeroa seems to have been especially bad. But Pakeha, among whom this and other diseases had been common for generations, had a much higher level of inherited immunity They also had better access to medical services. In Thames alone in July 1893 two doctors received £73 from the local bodies as their fees for notifying cases of infectious disease to the government; at 2s 6d a case this equals 584 consultations in a brief period (Thames Advertiser, 6 and 7 July 1893).

5.9 It would be unreasonable to argue that Maori should have received health services above the level of those that were generally available; the welfare state was still half a century away. Here a less ambitious argument is advanced: that though the condition of Maori health was worse than that of Pakeha they had even less access to health services than Pakeha. The state could have been expected to make more of an effort to bridge the gap. Although successive governments in fact made some special provision, they did so on a very modest and economical scale. Governmental action fell well below the needs of Maori and below the level of facilities available to Pakeha.

5.10 Most of the evidence that takes up the remainder of this section is derived from official sources—Native Agents, Native Medical Officers, Native school teachers and inspectors. Their reporting is haphazard, anecdotal and discontinuous, and cannot be organised systematically. As Maori were not required to report communicable diseases (the kind from which they most suffered) nor to register deaths, mortality and morbidity statistics for the period relate wholly to non-Maori. The creation of a Department of Public Health in 1900 and the appointment of Maori health officers and district nurses in the early loth century did nothing to improve the quality of the evidence. This region was for the most part outside the areas to which attention was directed; perhaps this arose from the assumption that the greatest need was in remote rural areas like Northland and the East Coast. Perhaps this was so; nevertheless, in Hauraki the situation was by no means good.

The region does not figure in the annual reports of the Department of Public Health until 1913 (though from time to time comments in the Auckland Health District reports may well refer to Hauraki). In 1913 it was reported that a native health nurse had been stationed at Thames, where enteric cases were numerous among Maori and likely to prove a health risk to the settlers pouring into the district (AJHR 1913 H31). She retired after a year, and was replaced by 'Nurse Ellen Taare, a Maori nurse'. By that time typhoid had become especially serious in Paeroa and was 'spreading all through Thames Valley'. The report went on: 'There were serious epidemics in progress in different

45

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

districts practically continuously throughout the year.' A temporary hospital was set up at Paeroa (AJHR 1914 H3D. These conditions proved too much for the newly appointed nurse, who resigned after a year. The district nurse, however, had more success against typhoid in the district and the recently arrived smallpox epidemic had been effectively countered by vaccination (AJHR 1915 Hr. For the rest, these annual reports do not yield information which can be confidently related to the Maori population of the region.

5.iz Another limitation to the evidence is that only a few items come from Maori sources. The little that does questions the conventional view that Maori were suspicious of and reluctant to use available facilities, that tohunga were unaware of the benefits of European medicine and that Maori were fatalistic and careless of their own well-being. It does not support the view that Maori would have neglected better services, had they been available.

Maori use of general institutions

5.13 The evidence relating to general institutions which were, in principle, available to Maori as well as Pakeha—public schools, public hospitals, private medical practitioners, agencies of state such as the Charitable Aid and Old Age Pensions administrations—is fairly slight. A Public Health Department memorandum of 1906 perhaps reflects the general situation; it urges that, in the matter of Maori health, greater use be made of hospitals where they exist, and notes that while some provide good care, others 'fail somewhat' because Maori do not pay rates (MA mho). Two items relating to the Coromandel hospital are noted below; one suggests that it was not much available to Maori and the other that it was. One item of evidence (already noted) comes from a board school with a substantial (and unhealthy) Maori enrolment; the fact that the teacher had to send to Wellington for advice suggests that public schools were not usually reliable sources of Maori health care.

5.14 In 1906, responding to a Departmental inquiry, the matron of Thames hospital insisted that Maori and Pakeha were treated on perfectly equal terms; however, she was only able to point to two Maori cases being treated at that time (in a 5o bed hospital), one of whom had been operated on for appendicitis. But equality of treatment was not in evidence during the 1918 influenza epidemic. Initially the Thames hospital refused to admit Maori victims and justified its refusal on the grounds that more infection should not be introduced into the borough. The Hospital Board at length yielded to the protests of the district health officer and the district nurse and admitted the worst cases from Te Kerepihi, where one hundred Maori were ill. This, in turn evoked some settler protest (Rice, Black November, pp. 115-116, citing the Thames Star, 12 and 23 Nov 1918).

5.15 Again in 1906, a handwritten return shows that of the 667 Maori recipients of the old age pension in New Zealand, 5o lived in the Thames district (35 of them at Coromandel) at a cost of £1250 pa (MA zdzo). Whether Maori received assistance in kind or

46

Health and Medical Care

cash under the Charitable Aid acts does not appear (Indigent' Maori did receive 'rations' from the Native Department, and supplies of seed potatoes were sent to communities whose crops had failed.). This meagre record suggests that the Maori share of general facilities would not modify their higher level of need and lower level of provision.

5.16 Though the evidence (recounted below in detail) is unsystematic it all comes from observers who were close to the scene. It leads to three reasonably firm conclusions—first, that levels of Maori health were persistently low and that this condition was punctuated regularly by more serious outbreaks of disease; second, that this situation was closely related to malnutrition, poor living conditions and general poverty; and third, that state action in response to this situation was inadequate and ineffectual. G.T. Wilkinson, reporting on the 1881 census, provided a useful snapshot of the condition of the Maori population at that time. Health was in general good—but by that he meant an absence of particular diseases or epidemics. The rest of his report hardly justifies the use of the word `good'. Mortality was chiefly among the very young or the aged and less among the middle aged, thanks to the decline of drunkenness. 'The sickness which has proved most fatal to Natives in this district has been consumption and disease of the lungs in the elder ones; and simple childhood diseases, accelerated by want of proper care and nourishment, in the

younger ones.' (AJHR 1881 G3).

A chronicle of ill-health

5.17 This section summarises indications of outbreaks of disease, prevalent diseases, and conditions of life affecting health, given in the sources named after each entry. Entries begin with a note of the district in question, where available; the informants are also indicated. Obviously, they were not operating within any uniform set of reporting instructions. Apart from the doctors, their primary concern was not to produce general health information. Information was given incidentally in relation to other concerns—school inspectors paid attention to health matters when attendance suffered and schools had to be closed, and the census enumerators were primarily concerned with the difficulties of enumeration. The native medical officers reported only upon cases they treated in their brief tenures. The absence of such officers after 1888 means that a major source of information is lacking for the greater part of the period. The small number of native schools results, too, in a very partial coverage of the region. It must be assumed that there was a good deal of unreported disease, thanks to the randomness of the sources, and to the fact that most of them were describing conditions in a small local community or making highly general comments on the region as a whole.

1875   Regional

Measles prevalent but more fatalities among Europeans than among Maori

(Puckey, AJHR 1875 GIB)

1876   Coromandel and Thames

Scarlet fever and typhoid (not specific to Maori) at both places with many fatal cases at Thames (Boards of Health report, AJHR 1876 H5)

47

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

1878   Regional

Good potato crops so that Maori are 'beyond the reach of absolute want of food' (Puckey, AJHR 1878 MA)

1881   Regional

No epidemic; Maori mortality chiefly among the very young and the aged from consumption and lung disease and simple childhood diseases due to lack of care and nourishment (Wilkinson, AJHR 1881 G3)

Coromandel

One death from bronchitis and one from scrofula and asthma (C.H. Horrell, Native Medical Officer, MA 21/19)

1882   Regional

`Considerable number' of Maori vaccinated in expectation of a smallpox epidemic (which did not arrive in New Zealand); children suffered from after-effects due to their unhealthy condition (Wilkinson, AJHR 1882 GI)

Coromandel

One death from phthisis, two more from 'retention of urine' and lamoptysis' (Horrell, MA 21/19)

1883   Coromandel

One death due to `febris' (fever) (Horrell, MA 21/19)

1884-5 Thames

Report on 15 months treatment by Native Medical Officer: cases chiefly pulmonary, skin, enteric illnesses; two deaths (causes not given) (M.H. Payne, Native Medical Officer, MA 21/19)

1884   Thames (Parawai)

One case of 'pneumonia ... of a typhoid character'; four deaths recorded in next few months (Payne, MA 21/19)

General

`No disease of an alarming nature'; Maori deaths chiefly among young people `and adults of no particular rank' (Wilkinson, AJHR 1884 GI)

Unidentified

Unspecified school closed due to 'very bad fever epidemic' with iz children `carried off (J. Pope, Inspector of Native Schools, AJHR 1884 E2)

1885   Thames (Parawai)

Three deaths in three months, one of typhoid (Payne, MA 21/19)

1886   Kirikiri

`Much sickness in the district' (Pope, AJHR 1886 Ez)

Thames (Parawai)

One death from typhoid, one from pneumonia and one from phthisis (Payne, MA 21/19)

1887   Regional

Health fairly good, no deaths of people of importance (Wilkinson, AJHR 1887 GI)

Kirikiri

Poor Native School attendance caused by 'sickness and death' (Pope, AJHR 1887 E2)

Thames (Parawai)

Two deaths from 'tubercular bronchitis' (Payne, MA 21/19)

1891   Regional

`Almost universal hakihaki amongst the [Maori] children' (Census report, AJHR 1891 G2)

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Health and Medical Care

1892   Regional

Health good, no typhoid epidemics as in North Auckland and East Coast (Wilkinson, AJHR 1892 G3)

1893   Kopu

A case of typhoid admitted to Thames hospital (Thames Advertiser, 4 July 1893)

Kirikiri

"Great amount of sickness (La Grippe and a kind of low fever)' (Native School teacher, BAAA 1001 285c)

1895   Whangamata

Typhoid outbreak among Maori-5 deaths, 14 sick, no medicines or doctor available (TN. Wright, Waihi doctor, JI 1895/1423—see case study paras 5.38,39 below)

1897   Manaia

`Several deaths from causes I cannot fathom. The children die in a few hours. The Natives, too, are on the brink of starving, all their potatoes having been consumed during the tangis.' (Walter, Native School teacher, BAAA 1001 z96d)

`The place literally swarms with children but the mortality is very great owing to the want of ordinary care.' (Walter, ji 1906/396)

`Haki-haki is very prevalent' (Walter, ji 1906/396)

1898   Manaia

`Here as at other places they are suffering greatly from scarcity of food following the very dry weather.' (Pope, BAAA IOW 297a)

`Several cases ... of influenza, inflammation of the lungs and syphilis' (Walter, ji 1906/396)

Crops poor or destroyed for last two to three years—'in spite of semi-starvation

I have had only one death ... against eight in the similar period last year' (Walter, J1 1906/396)

1899 Manaia

`Epidemic of confluent chicken pock' (Walter, BAAA 1001 297a)

23-25 deaths in two years from pulmonary complaints, especially phthisis, `infantile diarrhoea' and dyspepsia, caused by poor housing and poor diet, early marriages and inter-marriages and such 'remedies' as cold water treatment for fever (S.A. Bull, Coromandel doctor, JI 1903/1556)

1900 Manaia

The mortality has fallen from 25% to about 7% and the general health of the Natives is much improved' (Walter, ji 1906/396)

1901 Manaia and Whangapoua

Health worsening due to activities of 'Maori doctors' (Walter, ji 1901/1138)

19oz   Te Kerepihi

School attendance halved by influenza (J. Hope, Native School teacher, BAAA

1001 596a)

Manaia

More than 5o cases of a 'new type of influenza accompanied by purging and vomiting' (Walter, BAAA roar 297b)

1903   Te Kerepihi

`Much sickness' (Pope, AJHR 1903 E2)

One case of diphtheria but no spread (Hope, BAAA 1001 596a)

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THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

Manaia

`Fearful mortality ... five years ago ... over 3o children died in about three months' (Walter, BAAA toot 297b)

The winter is coming [April] and fully so% of the children already have colds' (Walter, JI 1906/396)

Miranda and Kaiaua

School roll around 30-40. 'About half of these are Maoris and there is always more or less sickness and disease among them' (T.F. Warren, Board School teacher, JI 1903/634)

1904   Te Kerepehi

`Typhoid fever prevalent' (Inspector of Native Schools, AJHR 1904 E2)

1905   Regional

No mention of region in record of subsidies paid by Department of Land and Surveys to resident doctors in outlying regions (AJHR. 1905 0:31

1906   Regional

Health very good but crop failure will lead to semi-starvation and high mortality; Maori lose farm stock through rabbit poisoning (Census report, AJHR 1906 (s2) H26A)

Ohinemuri county

Crop failure, potato crop rotted, maize and oats poor (Census report, AJHR 1906 (s2) H26A)

Coromandel county

Good health, influenza not serious. Charitable Aid Board does not consider that its Act applies to Maori (Census report, AJHR 1906 (S2) H26A)

1907   Thames

Measles and whooping cough reported (Hope, BAAA 1001 596b)

Te Kerepehi

School closed due to measles, one child dead (Hope, BAAA 1001 596b)

1908   Te Kerepehi

Maori cultivations flooded (Hope, BAAA I001 596b)

General (New Zealand)

`Epidemics and sickness have interfered with the regularity of the attendance [at Native Schools]' (Inspector of Native Schools, AJHR 1908 E2)

1909   Te Kerepehi

Considerable sickness and one death among schoolchildren (Hope, BAAA 1001 596b)

1911   Regional

Maori health good but potato crops destroyed by blight (Census report, AJHR 1911

HI4A)

Te Kerepehi

One case of typhoid at Native School (Hope, BAAA row 596b)

1912   Thames

Numerous cases of enteric disease (H. Maclean, Assistant Inspector of Hospitals,

AJHR 1913 H31)

1912/13 Mataora Bay

Epidemic, probably typhoid, closes school, teacher's letters passed to Department of Health (L. Church, Native School teacher, BAAA Tool 329b)

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Health and Medical Care

1913   Te Huruhi (Waiheke)

School closed due to skin diseases—`pustular sores' (Native School teacher, BAAA too' 568a)

1914   General (New Zealand)

Decrease in Native School attendance due to smallpox epidemic (Apirt 1914 El)

Paeroa and Thames Valley

Typhoid prevalent; temporary hospital at Paeroa (AJHR 1914 H31)

Mataora Bay

Native School closed, one severe case of skin disease taken to doctor (Church, BAAA Dow 329b)

5.18 Simply to recite the names of the illnesses as they were reported is to listen to a monotonously depressing litany of disease: measles, scarlet fever, consumption and lung disease, 'simple childhood diseases', bronchitis, scrofula with asthma, phthisis, retention of urine, `hamoptysis', pulmonary illness, skin diseases, enteric complaints, Tebris' (fever), pneumonia, fever, typhoid, pneumonia, typhoid, phthisis, tubercular bronchitis, hakihaki, La Grippe, low fever, typhoid, hakihaki, influenza, inflammation of the lungs, syphilis, chicken pox, phthisis, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, influenza, influenza with purging and vomiting, diphtheria, chicken pox, waiakeake, typhoid, measles, whooping cough, measles, typhoid, pustular sores, skin diseases. Many of these illnesses, especially the so-called 'childhood illnesses', were of much greater and frequently fatal severity among Maori, thanks to a lack of acquired and transmitted immunity.

5.19 The character of this list is further reflected in the quarterly reports furnished by the two Native Medical Officers, Drs Payne and Horrell, cited below. Only Payne's first report was printed; it is reproduced here as an appendix. Twenty four of the 77 cases listed by him are classified as 'Tubercular and Pulmonary'; four more are designated `Pertussis' (whooping cough). Enteric diseases and various kinds of skin diseases are frequently reported. There are also a number of surgical cases chiefly caused by accidents. This pattern is repeated in their quarterly reports—pulmonary, enteric and skin diseases make up a regular majority of reported treatments. There is no reason to believe that these illnesses did not continue to be endemic after these two officers were dismissed—that is, from 1888 on—nor that they were not prevalent outside the limited areas covered by their reports.

The state in action: four case studies

5.zo Faced with this situation—constant ill-health, frequent outbreaks of serious disease
leading to many deaths and recurrent crop failures—the state was not entirely inactive.
However, it was only spasmodically active; the level of care provided was little more than
palliative; the coverage was patchy; and financial provision was both meagre and
administered in a penny-pinching manner. Four case studies are offered in support of
these conclusions. The first examines the situation of the native medical officers; the
51

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

second the activity of a native school teacher; the third looks at government (and private) action to deal with famine; and the fourth gives an example of a local epidemic in which remedial action came after the outbreak was over. Together, these examples span the period from the 188os to the early 2oth century.

Native medical officers

5.21 A number of medical practitioners throughout the country were paid a small subsidy by the government to give free treatment to Maori patients. This was to cover the cost of medicines as well as consultations. (Some, it was reported in 1913, resented being obliged to give free treatment to well-off Maori (AJHR 1913 113I).) Only two of the five native medical officers in this region who treated Maori patients under subsidy during this period held the position for any length of time, Martin H. Payne at Thames and Charles H. Horrell at Coromandel (Payne's and Horrell's reports, upon which most of this section is based, are in MA 21/19).

5.22 Payne, on his own account, had held this position from 1874 to 1879 receiving a subsidy from the Native Department of £75 a year; no records from these years seem to have survived. Government retrenchment brought about his dismissal in 188o; he protested and was re-appointed in 1882. Around this time he was replaced temporarily by a Dr Huxtable at a reduced subsidy of £40 a year. Huxtable's relations with the Department were poor and he left in 1883, apparently under a cloud. In 1884 Payne was re-appointed, this time at Li5o a year, and held the position until 1888. Then he was again the victim of retrenchment and was not replaced. Huxtable's brief tenure brought out one interesting detail. He was reprimanded for visiting Maori at a distance from his residence, and told that if there were special cases needing his attention he should apply for authority

(MA 21/19).

5.23 The manner of Payne's second termination is instructive. In mid-1888 he was notified that his subsidy was to be reduced to £25 a year. Again he protested with vigour, claiming that his visits covered a wide area every week, and that he saw patients from Puriri, Ohinemuri, Hikutaia and occasionally from Waikato and Miranda. His reports indicate that he had treated nearly Soo patients in four years and that he visited some patients several times. The Department appreciated that Payne was a conscientious practitioner; it also anticipated that the reduction in his income would prompt his resignation. In effect he did not resign, but his letter of protest was treated as a resignation and 'accepted' in November 1888.

5.24 This produced, in May of the following year, a request for Payne's reinstatement from W.H. Taipari (whose family Payne had attended); 51 others also signed, including the celebrated traditional historian Hoani Nahe. The translation of their letter runs:

He was most attentive to his Maori patients. ... The old people now no longer have medical relief afforded them owing to the inability to go to the hospital.

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Health and Medical Care

In consequence of instructions received from Government that all patients should be taken to the hospital only those who are able to pay are admitted while those who cannot [do not struck out] are refused admittance.

This letter was minuted by the Native Minister, E. Michelson: 'Inform Taipari that the Government regret that his request cannot be acceded to.' Less brusquely, the Under Secretary instructed: 'Mr Hadfield Please write in courteous terms accordingly'. So ended the services provided by a diligent and conscientious medical officer, in order to effect a saving of kz5 a year.

5.25 At Coromandel, Charles H. Horrell applied for the position of medical officer in 1878; he had, he said, been treating Maori for the past five or six years (for which he unsuccessfully applied for retrospective remuneration) and now sought a salary. He was appointed in May at £25 a year and for that sum was to treat only 'the indigent'—the rest were to pay. His reports, compared with those of Payne, are scrappy and irregular. He claimed (in 188o) to cover a wide district, including Paparoa, Manaia, Kopuatauiti, Cabbage Bay, Kennedy Bay, Tiki and Whangapoua, and that many he had treated were not listed on his quarterly reports. Nevertheless, from 188o to 1884 he reported treating only i8o people, an output that compares poorly with Payne's. He reported only 23 cases in his last three quarterly reports. The Native Minister was asked if at an average of eight cases a quarter his salary should be continued. He was characteristically abrupt: `Discontinue John Bryce 25/3/84'.

5.26 In July 1885 the Native Agent, Wilkinson, forwarded a letter from Hohepa Mataiana(?) seeking Horrell's re-appointment, and adding his own support. There were not many Maori at Coromandel, Wilkinson noted, but a good number at Manaia, Waiau and scattered down the coast to Cabbage Bay who would use his services. The Departmental response was softer than with Payne, but equally economical. The Under-Secretary, T.W. Lewis, recommended agreement if the request should be repeated but went on to minute: 'I think however the matter might stand over for the present.' It did, and another kz5 was saved.

5.27 Manaia had been covered by Horrell during his brief tenure. (It was also the place where the teacher, Charles Walter, made health a major concern, as will be described below.) It was the scene of another short-lived medical effort in the early zoth century. Wiremu Renata and 29 others applied to the Minister of Justice in 1899 for medical assistance. Walter supported the request, noting that there had been 19 deaths since 1897 (out of a population of zoo) and that only 2% were vaccinated. Dr S.A. Bull of Coromandel was asked to report. He set the death level at 23-25 over two years, noted the prevalence of pulmonary and enteric complaints, described the causes as poor diet and poor housing, and added that those who came to the Coromandel hospital did so too infrequently and usually too late. He was sure that Maori at Manaia would take advantage of a weekly visit. In 1899 Bull agreed to make a weekly visit for £30 a year. In

53

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

1903 his partner, a Dr Cheeseman, was appointed in his place, but resigned in the same year, due to pressure of work at the Coromandel hospital, where he was in sole charge. He and the secretary of the Hospital Board (who claimed that many Maori attended the hospital, most of whom could not pay) asked that the subsidy be transferred to the hospital. This request was refused; a further £30 was saved (JI 1903/1556).

A native school teacher

5.28 Of the teachers who taught at the region's half-dozen native schools during this period (many of whom came and went very quickly), Charles A. Walter at Manaia seems to have been the most absorbed in his medical duties. He has left an archival record that extends from his appointment in 1897 to 1903. Other teachers do not appear to have been as active; had they been so fuller traces would have survived. The elementary medical services provided by the ordinary run of teachers were probably as patchy and irregular as those provided by the medical officers. Still, in either situation an energetic individual could make a difference, at least in the short term (Walter's letters are in BAAA I00I 296d, 297a, 297b; JI 1901/1138, 1903/1556, 1906/396).

5.29 The Education Department was primarily concerned with the health of the children attending school. To this end it operated a scheme by which teachers could from time to time (it is not clear what limit there was on frequency) send to a chemist with whom the Department had a contract for medicines of a fairly elementary kind—ointments, pain relievers (oil of cloves), disinfectants, tonics etc. The Te Kerepehi teacher once requested a 'tonic for girls who are pale' (BAAA roor 596b). There was a limit on the kind of materials available and of La on each order. The distribution may not have been very wide; in 1909 as few as 159 such orders passed through the Departmental office for the whole Auckland Health District (AJHR 1909 H31).

5.30 Walter sought to extend these limited functions to those of a general community health officer, somewhat to the displeasure of Manaia people and to that of the Education Department. He purchased medical equipment of his own, for example, a clinical thermometer, for which the Department refused to refund him the sum of los. Evidently he had been used to medical activity—soon after this appointment to Manaia he offered the Department the use of his own dispensing scales and weights. He claimed to have sent patients (with whitlows and boils) to Coromandel hospital at his own expense. In the same year (1898) he reported: 'I have several cases on my hands of influenza, inflammation of the lungs, and syphilis.' He asked for remedies to deal with the last of these, but the Department replied that remedies for venereal disease did not qualify for supply. The Under-Secretary reminded Walter of the limits to the kind of service he was expected to provide: 'the Government only supplies medicines to the children attending the school, and to adults only on the ground of extreme poverty, or of serious danger involved in procuring medicine from a distance.' Walter, however, kept on treating the community as a whole. In 1903 Dr Cheeseman of Coromandel reported that he had made few visits because Walter told him that no-one needed his services.

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Health and Medical Care

5.31 The school at Manaia was one with which the community felt a strong sense of identification; it was originally established in a marae building (Walter's first address was `Tapu Manaia'). Walter was often at odds with the Maori community. In 1900 a former chairman of the school committee accused Walter of lying and swearing at the children, and the committee itself reported a strong feeling against him. Walter claimed that his unpopularity arose from his opposition to the activities of tohunga and to what he called `child marriages' (by which he seems to have meant marriages in which both partners were very young).

5.32 An interesting situation developed in 1901. Walter reported that the activities of a `Maori doctor' had brought about a worsening of health and a refusal to accept the services of European doctors, and had caused children to stay away from school to collect herbs and plants from the bush. The Auckland inspector of police (John Cullen) had already instructed the local constable, Law (sic!), to report; he furnished two reports (one of which is attached as an appendix). Manaia Maori claimed that the visiting `doctors' from the Bay of Islands treated only rheumatism with herbal remedies. He noted, further, that they told him that children came back from the Coromandel hospital only to die. He added that the children stayed away from school because they disliked Walter, who was generally regarded as a troublemaker. Even so, as the next case study will show, he was a troublemaker who took his public health duties very seriously.

Two cases of famine relief

5.33 The potato crops failed on the Coromandel peninsula in the dry summer of 1898. The evidence left behind is limited to Kennedy Bay (Harataunga) and Manaia, but it is highly unlikely that the other Maori settlements in the district were unaffected. Just over 200 people were relieved by the action taken for these two places; the fortunes of the rest of the Maori population are unrecorded (ji 1898/868 (Harataunga) and ji 1891/713 (Manaia) for this section).

5.34 The Kennedy Bay tale is quickly told. The Ngati Porou people of this district had good connections. In July 1898 Renata Ngata sent a telegram from Coromandel to Paratene Ngata (father of Apirana Ngata) in Wellington, asking him to persuade the government to send food and noting that Manaia had already been sent food. The crops had been destroyed by the drought and there was no kauri gum (to sell for cash to buy food). The appeal was sent on to no less a person than the premier, R. J. Seddon (in his capacity as Native Minister) and information was requested. The Coromandel Justice of the Peace, Benjamin Johnson, reported to the Warden's office in Thames: 'Re their condition, from my own knowledge, I must say they are poorley off, caused by failure of crops, and excessive Tangis.' In November two tons of seed potatoes were despatched, after it had been ascertained that 17 acres had been prepared for planting. No doubt that made provision for the next harvest. There is no indication that anything was done to meet immediate needs.

55

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

5.35 Events in the same year at Manaia are recorded in more detail, thanks to the persistent Walter. In June he wrote to the Native School inspector, Pope; there was food left for only a week or two as the potato crop had been lost—the 'Natives' at Thames had been sent food and were not so badly off. At this point Walter's main emphasis was upon finding work for Maori so that they could buy food; he had himself found work for some but he could do little on a small salary. He repeated this story in a letter to the Native Minister later in the month. It was minuted in the Department: 'Keep briefly'. The Department of Education asked the Departments of Lands and Surveys and of Mines if they could provide work. In July, the Under-Secretary of Education, T. Waldegrave, wrote to the magistrate at Thames, R.S. Bush, saying that the Minister had authorised sending supplies of flour and seed potatoes, and noting that he had had no luck with Lands and Surveys or with Mines. He went on: 'The County Council, I believe, has a vote for widening the Thames Coromandel road, but it, no doubt, will give the preference to European labour.' Bush (probably) minuted on a further letter from Walter at this time: `There is not the slightest chance of these poor Maories getting any work.'

5.36 Meanwhile Walter kept up his pressure, and acted with some vigour on his own account. He wrote to the Native Minister, the Secretary of Education (again), and to the Minister of Justice. He asked for £ioo to set up a relief fund; he found some road work for Maori. He reported, too, that two tons of potatoes (probably for food, not seed) had been donated locally, from Kirikiri and Maraitau(?)—Mrs Tasman, 'a native of Kirikiri', was named as a donor. He made a public appeal through the Coromandel newspaper, for clothing for the children. This was in June—probably the worst of the winter was coming on. By July he was able to report: 'I have now clothed all my sick and given at least one warm dress to each girl and some have two, the boys too, have nearly all had some warm garment given them.'

5.37 The winter was over by the time the government's help arrived. In September Walter personally supervised the distribution of two tons of seed potatoes to 85 Ngati Maru and 61 `Ngatipokina'. In January of the following year, Hakere Paraone and W. Reneatu(?) signed a letter in Walter's handwriting thanking the government for two tons of flour and two of potatoes. It had been a hard winter; during the worst of the crisis the only relief resulted from the personal efforts of a conscientious (and probably very annoying) schoolteacher. Nor had the government been put to much expense; the flour would have cost around £3o; the price of seed potatoes is not given. Gilbert Mair offered this comment on both communities: 'These people have always been remarkable for their thrift and have never before had to approach Government for assistance.'

An epidemic at Whangamata

5.38 Late in 1895 the constable at Whangamata, J. Hickson, telegraphed the Commissioner of Police, to inform him that 14 were sick 'apparently' with typhoid, that five had died over the previous five months, and that neither medicines nor doctors were available. The Warden at Thames, Eyre(?) Kenny, reported late in November to the

56

Health and Medical Care

Department of Justice that Dr T.N. Wright of Waihi could be available for a 2,0 fee, and that Dr Forbes of Paeroa could go at once for three guineas a day and a half-guinea for every case treated. He was instructed to make the arrangements he had proposed; but the fees were not to exceed kw GI 1895/1423 for this and the next paragraph).

5.39 Dr Wright reported on eight settlements including Whangamata on 24 November. The epidemic of 'swamp fever' had been 'very severe' at Whangamata, but the worst was now over. The disease 'required a very poor condition of the constitution to make it infectious'; the situation had been made worse by cold water treatment and (perhaps) by the use of herbal remedies. He had left behind medicine and instructions about diet and nursing. He added that another outbreak was quite possible; if it occurred, a temporary hospital should be set up near Waihi.

Some conclusions

5.40 Throughout this period Maori health and general well-being were at a persistently low level, characterised by a high incidence of illness, especially pulmonary, enteric and skin diseases and of such 'childhood diseases' as measles and chicken pox. It is reasonable to conclude that ill-health was prevalent in the region as a whole during the period covered by this survey.

5.41 From time to time more serious outbreaks of disease caused many deaths in Maori communities, which appear to have been entirely vulnerable to them. Living conditions were poor and often insanitary, resistance to disease was low and conditions were conducive to the spread of infection. Vulnerability deriving from a lack of acquired immunity was accentuated by these conditions. Disadvantageous economic conditions underlay this situation: traditional food gathering had been limited by the spread of settlement and settler agriculture; Maori agriculture was restricted in extent and vulnerable to crop failure; employment opportunities to bring in a cash income were limited and unreliable.

5.42 The persistence of traditional habits may have contributed to this situation—for example, the activities of tohunga, the 'wastefulness' of tangi, and the reliance upon certain 'remedies'—but there is also evidence that Maori were ready to take advantage of both traditional and introduced forms of medicine; they did not fatalistically 'lie down and die'. The state, through its health and educational officials, and indirectly through public hospitals, was not inactive in response to this situation. However, it is also clear that its responses were on a small scale, often tardy and inadequate, and always dominated by strict financial constraints. Even when, in the early zoth century, the state began to shift its emphasis towards a preventive approach, through the Maori Health Officers and the Maori Councils, the Hauraki region fell outside the scope of this initiative.

57

6 . CONCLUSION:
A QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY

6.i This report presents a picture of a regional Maori population which, in little more than half a century, declined steeply in numbers, perhaps to as little as half the size it had been when large-scale settlement began in the asos. In a variety of ways, among which the actions of the state are prominent, this population's landed estate dwindled more radically still, perhaps to as little as io% of its original extent. The loss, to such an extreme degree, of this economic base was not accompanied by the opening of reliable additional economic opportunities. The proceeds from land cessions, leases and sales proved to be transitory and delusive. Even at the lower end of the socio-economic scale, in such activities as gum digging and road and rail construction, Maori workers suffered from unreliable returns, crippling competition and discriminatory practices.

6.2 This disadvantaged economic situation is paralleled by the social condition of Hauraki Maori. Whatever the difficulties that prevent any precise measurement of their conditions of health (the result of a lack of statistical information on mortality and morbidity), it is sufficiently clear that they suffered regularly from endemic and periodically from epidemic diseases related to their standard of living and that they had limited access to medical services. That conclusion is not invalidated by the impossibility, in the present state of research, of making comparisons with the condition of other regional Maori populations or with the condition of Hauraki Pakeha people, especially those at a low socio-economic level. Even if it could be shown that Maori were worse off elsewhere, or that some Hauraki Pakeha were as badly off, that would not qualify the conclusion that Hauraki Maori suffered severely from persistent poor health. As the saying has it, two wrongs do not make a right, and nor would a greater number of wrongs.

6.3 When, in the second quarter of the loth century, Maori health emerges from statistical obscurity, it was apparent that by a range of measures it was at a lower level than Pakeha health—measures relating to mortality, infant mortality, life expectancy, incidence of communicable diseases—and that this situation was closely related to the prevailing standard of living and access to medical services. It would be altogether

58

Conclusion: A Question of Responsibility

surprising if a condition which could for the first time be more precisely measured in the 1930s had not obtained, probably even more acutely, two, three and four decades earlier. It is not likely that Maori health declined from a satisfactory condition in, say, the 188os and the 1890s.

6.4 Further, even though health services in later 19th century New Zealand, for Pakeha as well as for Maori, were poor compared with the level to be attained later in the zoth century, it remains the case that Maori, including Hauraki Maori, presented a distinct range of problems. Maori health was in fact regarded as a special case by the state in the later 19th and early zoth century. Whether out of compassion, a sense of duty, or a fear that diseased Maori would transmit infection to the community at large, governments did make special provision for what were recognised as special circumstances. The charge to be made against the New Zealand state is not that it did nothing but that it saw a problem and responded inadequately.

6.5 An earlier section of this report was devoted to state provision for Maori education—another sphere in which a special problem was recognised and special action taken. The state's performance was perhaps less than exemplary, but at least it was sustained over time and extensive over the region. Set alongside health provision, the state's educational record looks good. A public effort in the health field as sustained as that in the education field would still have been quite inexpensive. It would have been well within the scale of existing state activities; it would have required no more than a modest extension (instead of, as in fact happened, a considerable contraction) of existing services. Increased activity on such a scale, rather than a premature anticipation of the welfare state, could have been reasonably expected of government. In the event, Maori were deprived in part even of inadequate services.

6.6 Underlying these questions as to the responsibility of the state in particular situations, is the broader question of its responsibility within the overall context of colonisation. The disadvantaged condition of Hauraki and of other Maori is, from the most general perspective, a result of colonisation. Governments tend to follow rather than to lead colonisation; they attempt (as in 1840) to catch up with it and then to control it. In Hauraki, it could hardly be argued that New Zealand governments caused the gold rushes, though they certainly encouraged them. While it would be unreasonable to hold the state responsible for the simple fact of colonisation or the simple fact of the gold rushes, it is still pertinent to consider the ways in which it acted within those contexts. In Hauraki politicians and officials worked effectively to secure access to Maori land for gold seekers and fixed (in both senses of the word) the rates at which Maori would be rewarded for their co-operation. In general, as in this instance, the state bears a responsibility for the specific modes of colonisation, and so for their consequences.

6.7 Health, a central concern in this report, provides a relevant case study. In addition to the two factors mentioned already—the standard of living and medical provision—the health of a colonised population relates to its lack of capacity to resist imported

59

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

pathogens. Pool has already been cited on this matter; he considers as basic to the condition of 19th century Maori the impact of an 'immunologically experienced' population upon an 'immunologically innocent' one. The latter suffer much more severely from the same diseases than do the people who brought them; the two populations do not approach anything like parity until the 'innocent' population has become 'experienced'. Obviously enough, governments can not be held to have caused either the absence of immunity or its gradual growth. But that conclusion does not finish the matter; governments may seriously affect other relevant factors, specifically the standard of living and access to medical services. They did affect them—by ensuring the virtual landlessness of Hauraki Maori and by failing to provide more than an unduly modest level of medical care.

6.8 It has been noted already that the impact of western diseases upon Maori was tempered by the absence of the more devastating afflictions and by the low density of the population in a large land area. Compared with the people of some Pacific islands, concentrated in a small area in which infection spread more rapidly, Maori were exempt from the more extreme consequences of imported disease. That consideration, however, does not lead to the conclusion that in New Zealand the progress and impact of these diseases was a matter of little consequence. The Maori population, in general and in Hauraki, did decline steeply; the main cause was a sharp increase in mortality brought about by new diseases. Although by the early zoth century it is probable that the benefits of acquired immunity were beginning to show up in the reduced frequency of epidemics, Maori health had reached a low point and was to stay there for some time to come.

6.9 The impact of the influenza epidemic in 1918 provides a vivid illustration. The official statistics collected and published by the Department of Health at the time pointed to a Maori mortality rate five times higher than the Pakeha rate. But Geoffrey Rice (Black November, pp. 102-104) has shown that these official figures, thanks to errors in compilation, seriously under-enumerated Maori mortality. His corrected figures (which he thinks might still be an under-estimate) show that the overall Maori rate was in fact seven times higher—and, further, that Thames had one of the highest Maori rates in the country. For this region, he gives a total of 16o deaths out of a population of 2,000, a rate of 8o deaths per thousand. The European rate for a combined Thames/Bay of Plenty district was close to the national average of 5.5 per thousand (Rice, p. 146, Fig. 8.z). Only South Taranaki had a higher rate, at 85.7 deaths per thousand. For all Maori Rice gives a rate of 42.3 deaths per thousand. He ascribes this higher Maori level to low immunity and poor living conditions, especially housing and nutrition (Rice, pp. 105-106).

6.10 A further critical case study in the matter of state responsibility is provided by the history of land alienation. Once settlement had begun it was certain that a good deal of land would pass from Maori to Pakeha ownership and control, if only (but not only) because many Maori anticipated advantages from Pakeha settlement. Because the makers of policy professed to adhere to the view that pre-colonial Maori owned the

6o

Conclusion: A Question of Responsibility

land, its acquisition was to be by way of purchase rather than (in the main) outright seizure. But, because the same policy makers only grudgingly or nominally accepted the reality and the justice of Maori land ownership, purchase was often conducted in ways which at least reduced if they did not quite negate the difficulties inherent in that acknowledgment. Certainly, the generality of land transactions do not resemble deals freely entered into by equal contracting parties; as certainly, many purchases were effected through undue pressure, engineered divisions among right holders, underhand devices and promises never fulfilled. Again, the responsibility of the state lies in the modes and the consequences of land acquisition; it is a responsibility which is not to be ignored because the colonisation and settlement of New Zealand, and of Hauraki, was in one way or another inevitable. It is a question of the way in which it was quite deliberately decided to act.

6.1i The consequences of these practises for land ownership and control are clear enough—the diminution, close to the point of elimination, of the landed estate of Hauraki Maori. The consequences for land use are also sufficiently clear—the reduction of the condition of Hauraki Maori to the status of subsistence farmers regularly subject to crop failures and without a basis for commercial agriculture. Apart from the persistence of traditional food gathering (which had been diminished by the growth of settler farming and the destruction of the forests), additional or alternative economic opportunities were irregular, unreliable and highly contestable, thanks to the numbers of Pakeha unemployed. To these considerations should be added an induced dependence upon sources of cash income which quickly dried up, and upon purchased food and commodities. This is the context in which the regular complaints, from such reporters as Puckey, that Maori were indolent and neglected food growing, should be placed. By the end of the century they had a need for a cash income to supplement the food they could grow. So did Pakeha settlers—but they had more land, some prospect of government assistance and better job opportunities.

6.12 These are general statements, and would not be inconsistent with the existence in the region of a handful of well-off Maori and a number of impoverished Pakeha. In the light of the problems of evidence described earlier in this report, the kind of firm conclusions which, today, would be based upon statistical returns and survey research, cannot be established. But these generalisations are consistent with the anecdotal evidence which has survived, and have a high degree of probability. At least, they are a good deal more probable than, say, any general explanation which suggested that Hauraki Maori had benefited from the half-century of change from the 187os to the 19ios.

6.13 This is the context in which the connection between the loss of land and the prevalence of ill-health should be placed, and the question of the responsibility of the state reconsidered. Nothing so simple as the statement that 'land loss caused disease' is being made. However, a close link between land loss, the paucity of alternative economic chances and economic disadvantage is proposed and, as a result of their interaction, a persistent condition of deprivation and poverty. It is argued, further, that poverty has an

6

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

intimate connection with the prevalence of the illnesses which severely afflicted Hauraki Maori before and after the turn of the century, and continued to do so. For if the immunological status of the population is one basic factor, poverty (as well as medical services) is another. Poverty fosters the living conditions which encourage the spread of the agents causing disease, while the immune levels affect the severity of the results of disease once it has been caught. Land loss, it is argued, is a major (though not the only) factor in bringing about the poverty level which in turn underlay the incidence and the severity of disease, and so the markedly high levels of morbidity and mortality so regularly noticed by observers and revealed in a stark statistical form in 1918.

6.14 Thus, in accordance with this analysis, the responsibility of the state is in a sense compounded. Not only, in land matters, may it be charged with improper practices and, in health matters, with the fault of seeing a problem and doing little about it, but also it may be held to share in the responsibility for the general state of social deprivation revealed and illustrated by the prevalence of ill-health. This viewpoint does not discount the forces of historical inevitability, nor does it 'blame' the state for the mere existence of colonisation—say, for the certainty that the colonisers would acquire a good deal of land, nor for the certainty that they would transmit harmful diseases. But it does not, on the other hand, discount the reality of human agency—the agency of those who made and administered public policy in the period. Whether they realised it or not, and that is a question beyond the possibility of an answer and, from the vantage point of the sufferers, not particularly to the point, they contributed significantly to the plight of Hauraki Maori.

6z

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Note: this bibliography is limited to sources cited in this report.

National Archives

Education Department files

BAAA 1001 244b (Harataunga) BAAA Ioca 285c (Kirikiri) BAAA I00I 296d (Manaia) BAAA I001 297a (Manaia) BAAA I00I 297b (Manaia) BAAA I00I 329a (Mataora Bay) BAAA I00I 329b (Mataora Bay) BAAA I00I 404b (Opoutere) BAAA Ioor 487b (Puketui) BAAA MOI 568a (Te Huruhi) BAAA Door 596a (Te Kerepehi) BAAA Ioor 596b (Te Kerepehi)

Justice Department files

JI 1891/713 (Manaia)

JI 1895/1423 (Whangamata)

\_51 1898/868 (Harataunga)

JI 1901/1138 (Manaia and Whangapoua) \_II 1903/634 (Miranda and Kaiau)

JI 1903/1556 (Manaia)

JI 5906/396 (Manaia)

Native Department files

MA 21/19 (Medical papers) MA 21/20 (Medical papers)

Official Publications

Censuses

Statistics ofNew Zealand,1857 Census of New Zealand,1864 Statistics of New Zealand, 1867

63

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

Results of a census of New Zealand, I871-

Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1878, Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1881 Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1886 Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1891 Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1896 Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1901 Results of a census of the colony of New Zealand, 1906 Results of a census of the dominion of New Zealand, 1911 Results of a census of the dominion of New Zealand, 1916

Population Census 1926. Vol. XIV: Maori and Half-Caste population

Census Enumerators' Reports

AJHR 1867 DI AJHR 1874 G7 AJHR 1878 G2 AJHR 1881 G3 AJHR 1891 G2

AJHR 1906(s2) H26A

AJHR 1911 HI4A

Education Department Reports

AJHR 1884 E2 AJHR 1886 EZ AJHR 1887 E2 AJHR 1890 EI AJHR 1900 EI AJHR 1901 E2 AJHR 1903 E/ AJHR 1903 E2 AJHR 1904 EI AJHR 1904 E2 AJHR 1905 El AJHR 1907 EI AJHR 1908 E2 AJHR 1910 EI AJHR 1912 E3 AJHR 1913 E3 AJHR 1914 EI

Health Department Reports

AJHR 1876 H5 (Boards of Health)

AJHR 1909 H31 AJHR 1913 H31 AJHR 1914 H31 AJHR 1915 H31

64

Bibliography

Labour Department Reports

AJHR 1893 HIO AJHR 1894 H6 AJHR 1897(52) H6 AJHR 1898 H6 AJHR 1902 HII AJHR 1905 HII AJHR 1906 HII AJHR 1909 HII AJHR 1910 HIT AJHR 1911 HII AJHR 1912 HIT

Native Department Reports

AJHR 1870 A16 AJHR 1871 F4 AJHR 1872 F3 AJHR 1873 GI AJHR 1874 G8 AJHR 1874 G2 AJHR 1875 GIB AJHR 1875 G2A AJHR 1876 GI AJHR 1878 GIA AJHR 1879 GI AJHR 1880 G4 AJHR 1881 G8 AJHR 1882 GI AJHR 1884 GI AJHR 1886 GI AJHR 1887 GI AJHR 1889 G3 AJHR 1892 G3

Other Reports

F. D. Fenton, Observations on the state of the aboriginal inhabitants ofNew Zealand, Auckland, 1859

AJHR 1862 DIO, 1863 DI4 (Report of the Land Claims Commissioner) AJHR 1867 DI (Census of New Zealand, 1867)

AJHR 1891 GI (Report of the Native Land Laws Commission)

AJHR 1893 H24 (Report of the Kauri-Gum Industry Inquiry Commission)

AJHR 1898 Hu (Report. . . of the Royal Commission on the Kauri-Gum Industry) AJHR 1905 CI (Department of Lands and Survey annual report (map))

AJHR 1908 GIS (Report of the Royal Commission on Native Lands: Coromandel County) AJHR 1910 CI (Department of Lands and Survey annual report) (map))

65

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

Newspaper

Thames Advertiser, 1893

Secondary Sources

David Alexander, The Hauraki Tribal Lands, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, 1997.

Robyn Anderson, The Crown, the Treaty, and the Hauraki Tribes, .doo–z88s, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, 1997.

Tom Brooking, 'Busting up the greatest estate of all: Liberal Maori land policy ,1891-1911,' New Zealand Journal of History, z6:1 (1992).

Louise Furey, Archaeology in the Hauraki Region, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, 1997.

Paul Husbands and Kate Riddell, The alienation of South Auckland lands, Waitangi Tribunal, 1993

John L. Hutton, A ready and quick method': the alienation of Maori land by sales to the Crown and private individuals, 1905-30, Crown Forestry Rental Trust, 1996

Ian Pool, Te Iwi Maori: a New Zealand population, past, present and projected, Auckland, 1991 Kate Riddell, Pre-186s Crown purchases in the Coromandel peninsula and Hauraki region, [Rangahaua Whanui project], Waitangi Tribunal, 1994

R.C.J. Stone, The Economic Impoverishment of Hauraki Maori Through Colonisation, 1830-1930, Hauraki Maori Trust Board, 1997

[Alan Ward], Historical report on South Auckland lands, Crown-Congress Joint Working Party, n.d.

Fiona Watson, [report for Rangahaua Whanui project], Waitangi Tribunal, n.d.

66

APPENDIX I: Dr M.H. Payne's Report, 1885

No. 5.

DR. PAYNE, Thames, to the UNDER-SECRETARY, Native Department.

SIR,-   Thames, May 13th, 1885.

In accordance with your Circular of April 20th, I now beg to report on the sanitary state of the Natives in this district. I may premise, however, that, in the absence of any special instructions as-to any special point, I find some difficulty in doing so. Again, the population being to a considerable extent migratory, many of them coming from a considerable distance, it is difficult to give anything approaching to a percentage of the sick in the district. As a whole, the health of the Native population is fairly good, and there has been an entire absence of any epidemic disease during the past fifteen months, i.e., from January 1st, 1884, to March 31st, 1885. The great majority of cases that have come under my notice being tubercular and pulmonary ; and, while giving all due allowance to hereditary taint, a very prolific cause of these diseases may be found in their manner of living. Take an instance in point :—I visited lately a mother and baby at Te Kopata : the mother was suffering from bronchopneumonia, and was coughing so violently as to threaten the rupture of a blood vessel ; the baby was suffering from acute bronchitis, and both were lying on a mat spread on the bare ground, in a small where, some 6 x 8 feet, the walls being so imperfect as to admit the wind freely in all directions—indeed, to my mind, most uncomfortably so. Again, I have found the opposite extreme, some cabins being so close and stuffy, and so full of smoke from a fire smouldering on the ground, that it required some practice to see at all. Some of the Maoris, again, are living in well-built houses, of a European type.

67

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION OF HAURAKI MAORI AFTER COLONISATION

3   G-2 e.

But even among the better class of Natives, their habits as regards dress might, as it appears to me, be changed greatly for the better. I now refer more especially to the practice of turning out in heavy great coat, Ake., &c., on a warm day, while on a cold and wet one the same persons may be met with apparently .

°

nothino• on but a shirt and a well-worn blanket. In matters of diet, moreover, there remains much to be desired in some districts. For instance, in the Ngatihako settlement, they Jive principally, if not exclusively, on shell-fish and rotten corn, the odour of the latter being discernable at quite a long distance from their habitations. A large proportion of cases other than tubercular may, I think, be traced to the above-mentioned causes. As you will perceive by the appendix sent herewith, the actual number of cases coming under my care daring the last fifteen months was seventy-seven (77). Of these, there have

died, 6 ; recovered, 51 ; and relieved (which includes those cases under treatment on March 31st), 19 ;   ' while one, a case of•cancer, refused treatment. These may be classified as follows

Tubercular and Pulmonary   ...   •••   •••   •••   24

Pertussis ...   ...   ...   ...   •••   •-•   4

Ulcers   ...   ...   ...   -••   •-•   ...   3

Eczema and Erysipelas   ...   . ...   ...   ...   2

Syphilis and Syphilitic Sores   ...   ...   ...   •••   3

   Rheumatism and Rheumatic Fever   ...   .....   4

Dysenteric Diarrhoea....   ...   ...   ...   ...   2

Other Intestinal Cases   ...   ...   ...   •-•   7

Dentition   ...   ...   ...   ...   ..-   1

Odontalgia and Otitis...   ...   ...   ...

•••   7

Conjunctivitis (4) andCepludalgia (2)   ...   ...

•-•   6

Diseases incidental to the Puerperal state and Pregnancy ...   -.•   2

Mammary Abscess ...   ...   ...   ...   ...   1

Fractures   ...   ...   ...   ...   3 Surgical Cases, 7

ur   Contusions   ...   ...   ...   ...   1 S

r,

Penetratin.• wound from fishook   ...   ...   1

Tumours   ...   ...   ...   ...   2

Malignant diseases   ...   •..   ...   ...   ...   1

Kidney diseases   ...   •••   ...   ...   ...   3   ■

   Total   ...   ...   77

Of the cases above enumerated, one case was treated by me in the Thames Hospital, viz., Peter Luke, compound fracture of internal malleolus and fibula of right foot.

On looking back, during the past eleven years, one cannot but be struck with the great progress of the Native population in the upward march of civilization. Some young men of the rising generation are bidding fair to become well educated, even after a European model; while in morals they might serve as examples to be copied with advantage by many of their white brethren. In matters of cleanliness, however, there yet remains very much to be desired.

I think if they could be persuaded to live more on plain nourishing food, such as beef, mutton, eggs, and milk, and less on fish (more especially shell fish), and to abstain altogether from that native luxury
   —rotten corn,—and, at the same time, to pay more regard to   °

clothino- in respect to seasons, and less in

respect to show ; and if their dwelling places could be rendered more healthy with a few other stmitary precautions, there would be far less danger of the race becoming extinct than at present unfortunately

exists.   •   .

I have not yet alluded to the temperance aspect of the district, but a very marked change for the better has made itself manifest here during the past two or three years in this respect - indeed, I believe that at present the great majority of the natives in this district have joined the Blue Ribbon movement, and intoxication is, in consequence, exceedingly rare.

I have, (1,:c.,

•

MARTIN H. PAYNE, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.,

   -   Native Medical Officer, Thames District.

   .   .   .

68

Appendix I: Dr M.H. Payne's Report, .1.883-

—

\_   

G.-2A.   4

Enclosure to No. 5.

Report of Native Cases treated by me, from January 1st, 1884, to March 31st, 1885.

   Name.   Age. I Sex.   Residence.   Disease.   Result.

Perimona Wateni   ...   20   M ... Kirikiri   ... Esysipelas   ...   ...   ... Cured

Manihua   ...   ...   10   M ... Pamwai   ... Tuberculosis-Retention   ...   ... Died

Ohepa Kapenc...   ...   40   M ... Ohinemuri   ... Labial Ulcers ...   ...   ... Relieved '

Tomati Walker   ...   80   M ... "Down the Coast" Asthma   ...   ... •   ...   do.

Wira ...   ..   25   M ...   ...   Odontalgia   ...   ... •   ... Cured ...

Arapati It awiri   ...   35   M ... Kirikiri   ... Conjunctivitis ...   ...   ...   do.

Karaitiana   ...   ...   85   M ... Kirikiri   ... Lumbago and Sciatica • ...   ...   do.

Koke te Ratene   ...   60   M ... Kirikiri   ... Otitis   ...   ...

Ruihana Karehio   ... 70 M ... Kirikiri   ... Small Tumour, causing irritation to eye Relieved

Polly Brown ...   ...   18   ... F Totara   ... Mammary abcess   ...   ...   do.

Maria Tali ...   ...   3   ... F Totara   .   ... Scrophulous Sores and. Abcess   ... Cured

Kuihana Kawhero   ...   70 II ... Kirikiri   ... Acute Rheumatism ...   ...   do.

.   :•-

Te Tai He Te ...   ... 6rno. ... F   ...   Tuberculosis, Gastric Irritation   ... Relieved

Karaitiana   ...   ...   85   M ... Kirikiri   ... General (Edema, Ulcers on legs   ...   do.

Mary Ann Kaihete   ...   35   ... F   --•   Conjunctivitis ...   ...   ... Cured

Wiremu Rhnriri   ...   24   M ...   ...   Cephalalgia   ...   ...   ...   do.

Wiremu King ...   ...   25   II ...   ...   Colic   ...   ...   ...   do.

Turuhuia Matiu   ...   4   ... F Parawai   ... Enteritis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Hepi ...   ...   ...   56   ... F Totora   ... Inflam'n of shoulder joint & Contusions   do.

Hoani Ranapia   ...   4   M ... Kirikiri   ... Acute Phthisis ...   ...   ... Died

Taipari W. H.   ...   50   Ai ... Parawai   ... Conjestion of Kidneys   ...   ... Cured

Victoria   ...   ...   70   ... F   Parawai   ... Bronchitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Kohu Poti   ...   ...   40   l'vl ... Came from distance Conjunctivitis ...   ...   ...   do.

Taipari Mary ...   ...   19   ... F Parawai   ... Bronchitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Kiwi Maremana Konui... 14 Id ... Totara, near Booms Typhoid-Pneumonia   ...   ... Died

Henerika   ...   ...   25   M ...   ...   Odontalgia   ...   ...   ... Cured

Hone to Opatito   ...   1   M ... Miranda   ... Dysenteric Diarrhoea   ...   ...   do.

Tahuna   ...   ...   30   M ...   ...   Bronchitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Mere Kum   ...   ---   Colic   ...   ...   ...   do.

Wira Poroa ...   ...   40   Id ...   ...   Odontalgia   ...   ...   ...   do.

Taruhuia Matui   ...   4   ... F Parawai   ... Retention and Dysurea ...   ...   do.

Hippirime te Whetu ...   40   ... F   ...   Stone in Bladder   ...   ... Relieved

Victoria Edward   ...   35   ... F Kirikiri .   ... Rheumatic Fever   -..   ... Cured

Matui Rapana   ... 7mo. ... F Parawai   ... Dysentry   ...   ...   ... Died

Willoughby Merriman ... 19 Al ... Totara near Booms Typhoid-Pneumonia   ...   ... Died

Ernera Mare ...   :..   22   II ...   ...   Febrile Catarrh   ...   ... Cured

Mrs. Taipari ...'V   F Parawai

...   20   ...   ... Disorders attending pregnancy   ... Relieved

Hona   ...   ...   70   NI   .. Kirikiri   ... Phthisis   ...   ...   ... Died

Peter Kuko ...    ...   70   Ai 1 ...   ..•   Compound fracture of leg ...   ... Cured.

End Watene ...   ...   3   ... F Kirikiri   ... Worm Fever ...   ...   ... Cured

Joseph Kupene   ...   35   M ... Ohinemuri   ... Ulcers   ...   ...   ... Relieved

William Nathan   ...   8   M ... Parawai   ... Pertussis   ...   ...   ... Cured

Pone Hill   ...   ...   30   M ... Miranda   ... Ulcer   ...   ...   ...   do.

Rakapa Watenc   ...   Bronchitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Koku Watene ...   ...   3   M ...   ...   Bronchitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Meta Watene ...   ...   Bronchitis   ......   do. ...

W. H. Taipari   ...   45   H ...   ...   Bronchitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Hanoi 0. Rakita   ...   7   H ...   ...   Otitis   ...   ...   ...   do.

Edward Murray   ... 4mo. .M. ... Kirikiri   ... Pertussis...

   ...   ...   do.

Brown Murray   ...   3   /4 ... Kirikiri   ... Pertussis   ...   ...   ...   do.

George Tamaki   ...   35   lil ... Kirikiri   ... Phthisis   ...   ...   ... Relieved. -

Mrs. Anderson\_ ...   35   ... F Kirikiri   ... Confinement (placental adhesion)   ... Cured

Matui Rapana   ...   4   ... F Parawai   ... I Pertussis   . ...   ...   ... Cured

Henry Tio lira   ...   3   M ...   ...   Debility—Tuberculosis   ...   ... Relieved

Hera Walker ...   ...   21   M ... Kirikiri   ... Penetratirr, wound from &shook (cut out) Cured

A. We   ...   ... 50 M. ... Tapu Creek   ... Malignant disease(refused to submit toj treatment

Hori Tamaki ...   ...   22   II ... Kirikiri   ... Tuberculosis ...   ...   ... Relieved

Hcmoao   ...   ..   7mo. ... F   ...   Scrofula   ...   ...   do.

Kapi Rana   ...   ...   70   M ... Kirikiri   ... Conjunctivitis ...   ...   ... Cured .

Nellie Keelan ...   ...   Spasms   ...   ...   ...   do.

Tami ...   ...   ... Gmo. H ... Miranda   ... Congenital Syphilis   ...   ... Relieved

Fara Ma   ...   ...   25   ... F Miranda   ... Syphilitic Sores on breast ...   ...   do.   .

Heta ...   ...   ..-   75   Al   ...   ...   Otitis   ...   ...   ... Cared

Hon Timohn ...   ...   12   II ....   ...   Bronchitis   ...   ...   ... I do.

Herina Ranapia   ...   35   ... F Parawai   ... Bronchocele   ...   ...   ... Relieved

Hare Ranapia ...   ... ' 13mo. ... F Parawai   ... Vomiting and Diarrhoea ...   ... Cured

\_Mira Ranapia ...   ... Gwks. ... F Parawai   ... Colic...   ...   do.

.   ...

Keepa   --.   ...   '   Cephalalgia   ...   do

   ...    ...   do.

Victoria   ...   ...   50   ... F Parawai   ... Otitis   ...   --   ...   do.

Henri   ...   ...   Fractured clavicle   .,.   .:.   do.

Parani   ...   ...   20   M ...   ...   -   Hemoptysis   ...   ...   ... Relieved

Ern Anihana ...   ... 8mo. M ...   ...   Diarrhcea-dentitio   .:.   ... Cared

Taramana   ...   ...   23   M ... Kirikiri   ... Tuberculosis ...... Relieved. ...-.s

Meihana   ...   ...   5G   NE ...   ...   Pleuritic...   ...   ...

Pia Hana Kau   ... 7mo. ... F   ...   Eczema   ...   ...   ...   •

Mary Tio   ...   ...   • Rheumatism ...   ...   ...

Maihane Rakan   ...   Costal Fracture   ...   ...

\_   .

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