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It is not said on what authority Sir William Martin makes this statement. There is reason to doubt its accuracy. "At the time of the conquest," says Chief Commissioner McLean, "many acts of ownership over the soil had been exercised by the Waikato. The land was divided among the conquering chiefs, the usual customs of putting up flags and posts to mark the boundaries of the portions claimed by each Chief had been gone through."—"I know," says the Rev. Mr. Buddle, "that a large party of the Waikato people belonging to the Ngatimaniapoto tribe under Niutoue Te Pakaru, went to Waitara several years ago, and cleared a large piece of land there for cultivation in order to exercise their rights."—"I am decidedly of opinion," says the Rev. Mr. Whiteley, "that Archdeacon Hadfield is wrong and that Mr. McLean is right. Certainly the Ngatimaniapoto came to Waitara and had a kainga and cultivations there." "The title of the Waikatos [to Taranaki,]" said Chief Protector Clarke in 1844, "is good so far as they have taken possession."—"The land is ours," said the Waikato Chiefs in 1844; "we claim it by right of conquest, and some part of it by possession."—"But as some of the Waikato," says Mr. White, "under Rewi and others, were still cultivating in the vicinity (for the crops then in the ground) this was given as an excuse by Wiremu Kingi (1848) for asking Teira and Ihaia to be allowed to come over to the South side of Waitara river."

Wiremu Nera Te Awaitaia, one of the greatest Waikato warriors, and next in rank as a Chief to Potatau Te Wherowhero, was one of the conquering party who made a partition of the land at Waitara, and struck a musket into the ground to denote the boundary of what he intended to claim.