Historical report on Fenton fishery entitlements: Manuhaea, Korotuaheka and Awakokomuka

Abstract

It was quickly apparent that the promises made in Kemp’s purchase were not fulfilled and by 1849 the first letter of protest from Matiaha Tiramōrehu was received by the Crown. Appeals for further lands was at centre of these protests. Very little farmable and economically productive lands were ever provided but in 1868 following the first hearings of the Native Land Court in the South Island Chief Judge FD Fenton allowed for some mahinga kai reservations that directly abutted waterways both inland and at sea. Fenton claimed when giving evidence on a petition regarding a different fishery in 1880 that he had allowed all the mahinga kai reservations requested: ‘I told the Natives to select their eel fisheries and such other fisheries as they thought proper should be reserved for them…The Natives produced a list of the fisheries that they required and I made orders for the whole of them.’ In fact, even if the reserves were ordered, some were never granted. One significant mahinga kai site which had been approved by Fenton but was never implemented and provided with a title was Tutaepatu lagoon near Kaiapoi. Manuhaea was at least taken further along the process with an order of reference although it seems a title was never issued.