Te Heuheu Tukino V1 Hoani 1925

edmondsallan - Hello - I hope you like my newer journal format . It should be easier & quicker to read. I think also, just as I am finding , it looks better in the book that I am bringing together . Just a reminder. Don't break the copy right I have already taken out under this name. For personal use > Individual copies of each allowed = one per person . Books - is a no no . ( especially for sale or monies changing hands for a book - booklet - books - complete loose sheets of same at cost or otherwise = breaking the copy right law = Minimum fine - NZD 10,000. Sorry to have to remind people . I want everyone to be able to have it & not exploit these journals . Just like this wonderful website that is free to all . I'll just make my first ' cuppa ', Tell " old faithful " to wake up , she has work to do . Their is no way I can possibly remember all my reasearch - she can !!. Ok -back in Five ( 5 )- - - - - OK. Lets hit the straps and gradually build up .
Friction continued up to the day of the meeting, eventually held on 21 April 1926 at Hoani’s marae. The government proposed that in return for vesting Taupo waters in the Crown as a public reserve, a Tuwharetoa trust board would be set up which would receive £3,000 a year to be expended for the benefit of Ngati Tuwharetoa. In addition, when the yearly revenue from licences and fines exceeded £3,000, the board would receive half. A number of free licences would be granted each year by the Department of Internal Affairs to persons nominated by the trust board. The department would have the right to issue permits and control erection of fishing camps, and issue licences to launch operators. The public would have access to a margin one chain (22 yards) wide around all Taupo waters. The board could recommend areas within their strip to be reserved from public access. (In spite of Hoani’s ongoing efforts, by 1932 the reserves still had not been gazetted.)

It was soon clear that some of these provisions dismayed Ngati Tuwharetoa. One of the main issues was the loss of private revenue by hapu and individuals who owned land along the Tongariro and Waitahanui rivers; this would not be compensated for by a general payment to Ngati Tuwharetoa. Hoani was invited to Wellington to discuss these issues, but he demanded that 12 representatives, one for each of the major hapu around the lake, go to Wellington at the government’s expense. Hoani Te Heuheu and the other 11 representatives met the government’s negotiators in Wellington on 23 July. The government promised to set up a tribunal to assess compensation for riparian owners. Hoani Te Heuheu signed the final agreement on 26 July 1926.

This did not end the barrage of criticism. Some queried the origin of Hoani Te Heuheu’s right to sign an agreement giving Lake Taupo to the government, when the majority of Tuwharetoa did not agree to the gift. Nevertheless, legislation was passed transferring the lake and rivers to the Crown, and setting up the Tuwharetoa Trust Board. At its first meeting on 24 November 1926 Hoani was elected unopposed as chairman. He was re-elected unopposed throughout the rest of his life.

His first duty was to meet with the people of Waitahanui who claimed that they wanted their river excluded from the agreement as it was their only source of revenue. Hoani persuaded them to cease charging fees to anglers, and to present their claims for compensation for loss of their riparian rights. A lawyer, T. W. Lewis, agreed to pursue all the river claims, and Hoani was one of the guarantors of his legal costs. In the event they were to suffer a long wait; Lewis died in 1927 and the board took over the claimants’ legal costs. Delays to the expected compensation did much to worsen the financial position of Hoani and his people. In 1936 he was still attempting to arrange an amicable settlement of the Taupo rivers compensation claim.

By January 1927 Hoani and the Tuwharetoa Trust Board had produced a plan for their funds, to be divided between educational and marae grants, medical care and land development. Hoani was an efficient chairman - conciliatory, but keeping discussion to the point; only rarely did he miss a board meeting and then only for urgent Native Land Court business or ill health. Hoani was also chairman of the medical subcommittee, responsible for hiring and firing doctors and deciding the level of financial support for nurses stationed at Tokaanu and Taupo. In 1928 he suggested that the director of the Division of Maori Hygiene or his officers should make a tour of inspection of the whole district and draw up a comprehensive report on the most urgent needs of each marae and settlement so that the board could determine spending priorities.

Financed by the board’s grants, a refurbishing of Tuwharetoa marae and rebuilding or commencement of many carved houses was made possible, but every project completed provoked new requests, and demands for medical and educational grants increased. By 1930 the board itself and many of its members, including Hoani Te Heuheu, were in a state of financial crisis. This was provoked by the death of Robert Jones, the storekeeper at Tokaanu to whom a large section of Ngati Tuwharetoa was heavily indebted. Board members were permitted under the regulations to borrow money from the board, and as their timber royalties declined and the river compensation failed to appear many of them borrowed small sums at each meeting, each loan secured by their land interests; their positions were getting steadily worse.

The crisis emerged at the board’s meeting of June 1930. It transpired that Jones’s estate was owed £12,000; Hoani Te Heuheu was one of the many debtors. The board decided that as so many Ngati Tuwharetoa were affected, it was proper to use its funds to take over the debt. At the same time the costs associated with the ongoing legal battle with the Tongariro Timber Company for the royalties due to Tuwharetoa were mounting; Tuwharetoa's lawyer, M. H. Hampson, was owed £2,000. On 14 June 1932 the board decided to request the native minister, Apirana Ngata, to approve a loan of £5,000. This resulted in a visit from Ngata and his private secretary, Te Raumoa Balneavis, to Tokaanu on 29 October to reorganise the board’s finances. A loan was approved resolving the immediate difficulties, and Norman Smith, then of the Rotorua office of the Native Department, was made the countersigning officer for all board cheques. In 1932 Hoani approved a nine per cent reduction of the board’s annual grant for the next three years to assist the government in its financial difficulties in the depression years. Despite this, the board’s financial position had substantially improved; it was greatly assisted by the passing of social security legislation which reduced many of its former responsibilities to sick and indigent members of the tribe.

Hoani’s personal position was not helped by his many responsibilities as head of his tribe. His attempts to find paid employment (as the board’s secretary in 1933, and much later as its ranger at Rotoaira to protect Tuwharetoa's fishing interests) were blocked, on the grounds that such work was demeaning to one of his rank. He was required to attend to the tribe’s and the board’s business up and down the country, and though some of his expenses were reimbursed, the requirements of hospitality meant that he was usually out of pocket. He represented Tuwharetoa at many major events; at the same time his marae hosted tribal hui, and visitors such as Koroki and other dignitaries on many occasions. In 1936 the Tuwharetoa Trust Board took on additional duties in place of the Tongariro Maori Council, so that Hoani had increased responsibilities for the health and housing of his people. About this time he moved his home from Waihi to Tauranga-Taupo. Till we meet again - Regards - edmondsallan