NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Kahu

Māori Land Court turns 159: A history of transformation and controversy

Whakaata Māori
30 Oct, 2024 05:37 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Native Land Court at Ahipara. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

Native Land Court at Ahipara. Photo / Alexander Turnbull Library

New Zealand’s oldest and longest-running specialist court turned 159 years old yesterday.

On October 30, 1865, the Native Land Court was created, a product of the Native Lands Act 1865. People today know it as the Māori Land Court.

The original intent of the court was to convert customary Māori land claims into legal land titles. However, the law had made sure a block of land, regardless of its size, could only have up to 10 owners. This meant the remaining Māori who occupied the land were not legally recognised as having rights to it. As a result, the recognised “owners” were able to manage or sell the land individually, often for personal gain.

Historian Dr Aroha Harris (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi), said part of the intent was for it to get Māori land into the hands of Pākehā settlers

“This is oversimplifying but the basic pattern is Māori land goes into the court, it’s just a matter of time before it transfers to the Crown, which is trying to get it into the hands of Pākehā settlers and that’s the basic pattern.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

‘Wartime strategies’

The courts opened towards the end of the civil wars in Aotearoa. The act and the court were introduced a year after the Waikato War.

In the same decade, legislation like the Native Schools Act, aimed at assimilating Māori into Pākehā society, and the Māori Representation Act, intended to reduce future racial tensions, offered far less representation for Māori compared with European voters, resulting in official neglect well into the 20th century.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

For Harris, all of these and the court were “wartime strategies” against Māori.

“They have long-lasting impacts on Māori and, if you ask me which one thing most unravelled Māori society, I would say the Native Land Court, that would be my answer.”

In 1860, Māori held 80% of the land in the North Island. Just 20 years later, this dropped to 40%, with eight million acres passing into European ownership due to the Native Land Court and various land laws. By 2000, more than a century later, Māori land ownership had fallen to just 4%.

“The court had this illusion of being okay and being legitimate and being accepted by Māori because it had this legal process behind it but it’s a legal process that was designed for the wholesale transfer of Māori land to Pākehā settlers,” she told Te Ao Māori News.

Dr Aroha Harris. Photo / University of Auckland.
Dr Aroha Harris. Photo / University of Auckland.

Harris said it was easier for Māori to sell rather than keep the title of ownership.

“There [were] some great examples of Māori farming and that could have continued. But Māori couldn’t raise capital because investors didn’t want to invest in them, [and] banks didn’t want to lend to them.

“Māori were excluded from access to government funding until Āpirana Ngata got involved in the 20th century but, by then, a whole lot of damage had been done.”

Many Māori would rack up debts when having their cases heard in court, with some hearings lasting months. This meant after when it was all over, some would have to sell parts or all of their land to pay off the costs.

Feeling the impacts in the 21st century

A number of Māori people across the motu still own their land, either by retaining it or through having it returned.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Harris and her whānau own a bit of whenua in the Far North.

“Anyone who owns Māori land and now knows how frustrating it is to deal with our land, how difficult it can be, especially if you’ve got small holdings.

“You have to do so much work and deal with so many different rules and regulations just to hold on to your property.

“You don’t get that with general land titles such as for the sections that some of us own in the cities, where the title to our land is very clear but the title to our Māori land is a complete mess.”

She spoke about the complications and resources needed to maintain and keep her whānau land where her grandparents’ whare lies.

Harris admitted to Te Ao Māori News that she felt a bit paranoid about the land being confiscated by the Crown.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

“I would love to kind of not be paranoid about holding on to the land. But the Crown has got a track record and it’s not a good track record and we’ve kind of got generations who’ve felt pummelled by Māori land legislation.

“There’s a bit of wanting to relax and have some trust that things have changed enough that our land isn’t under threat of being taken again but then you have to think about that in relation to this long history of land being taken over and over again.”

Land Courts u-turn

In 1954, the Native Land Court was renamed, replacing “Native” with “Māori”. However, this wasn’t the only shift. As Māori Land Court Chief Judge Caren Fox (Ngāti Porou) explained to Te Ao Māori News, its history is “one of transformation”.

“Originally known to Māori as ‘te kooti tango whenua’ for its role in the 1800s in individualising land title and enabling the loss of Māori land from their ownership, the work of Māori landowners alongside successive governments have seen it evolve into a court that acts, in the words of former chief judge Tā Taihakurei Durie, ‘as a forum to facilitate and enable the utilisation of land held in multiple ownership, to facilitate owner-management of lands, and to settle differences arising within the body of owners’.

Chief Judge Caren Fox. Photo / Māori Land Court website.
Chief Judge Caren Fox. Photo / Māori Land Court website.

“While ensuring that this land is retained by their owners, their whānau and hapū and can be passed down to future generations. All decisions concerning the practical use of the land are now made by owners, or their trustees or their committees of management, in accordance with the principle of rangatiratanga as set out in the preamble of Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993.”

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Throughout its history, the jurisdiction of the Māori Land Court has evolved. In 1894, the court gained authority to grant probate and letters of administration for Māori but this was revoked in 1967. The Native Land Act 1909 empowered the court to issue adoption orders, though this responsibility shifted to the Magistrate’s Court with the Adoption Act of 1955. The Māori Lands Amendment Act 1967 further limited the court’s authority in certain areas.

The court’s current jurisdiction stems from the Te Ture Whenua Māori / Māori Land Act 1993, which significantly expanded its authority.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Kahu

Politics

Te Pāti Māori byelection contender cops flak for supporting Labour MP’s selection

Kahu

New baby store in Gisborne aims to support Māori enterprises and product accessibility

Premium
OpinionSimon Wilson

Simon Wilson: Slum designs or no new social housing at all?


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Kahu

Te Pāti Māori byelection contender cops flak for supporting Labour MP’s selection
Politics

Te Pāti Māori byelection contender cops flak for supporting Labour MP’s selection

Te Kou o Rehua Panapa is pondering which party he could run for in next year's election.

15 Jul 11:51 PM
New baby store in Gisborne aims to support Māori enterprises and product accessibility
Kahu

New baby store in Gisborne aims to support Māori enterprises and product accessibility

15 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Premium
Simon Wilson: Slum designs or no new social housing at all?
Simon Wilson
OpinionSimon Wilson

Simon Wilson: Slum designs or no new social housing at all?

15 Jul 05:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP