Maki and te Wheoro.

The cases of Wiremu Te Wheoro and Hawira Maki are stronger than those of Ngatiteata and Ngatitamaoho. Maki, the father of claimant, seems to have lived the greater part of his life with Apihai, and only left Okahu a short time before his death. There he seems to have made his home. He was the second cousin of Te Wheoro, and grandson of Waikahina, the sister of the great Kiwi. This woman seems to have escaped the massacre of her tribe, and to have fled South to the protection of a tribe called Ngatipou, living about Pokeno, whose chief took her to wife, and these claimants are the results of the union. Wiremu Te Wheoro is a member of the tribe Ngatinaho, a hapu of Te Wherowhero's tribe, Ngatimahuta; and having cast in his lot with them, he must be regarded as a member of that tribe., and his ancestral claim will not avail. Had his father returned, and been admitted amongst the conquerors and intermarried with them, he would, as far as the Court can see, have had as good a right to be considered and treated as a member of Te Uringutu or the "collection of remnants" as Eruera Paerimu, whose right is admitted. But his forefathers preferred the page 84greater dignity of their Waikato connection, and he must now be excluded.

The case of Maki is more doubtful. He does appear to have lived with Apihai for a great number of years, and his claim apparently is in no way inferior to Paerimu's, except that his fathers did not intermarry with Apihai's tribe as Hakopa Paerimu did. Paerimu's wife who gave birth to Eruera Paerimu, the claimant, was Titoki, of Te Uri-o-te-ao-tawhi-rangi, the hapu of Ngaoho to which Tokarorae, whose name was often mentioned, belonged. But this distinction in their status is very important. Moreover, Hawira Maki, the present claimant, does not appear to have himself coalesced with Ngaoho at all. He has entirely cast in his lot with Ngatipou, his own tribe at Maketu near Pokeno. It is a very singular fact, to which the attention of the Court was called by Mr. MacCormick, that, though he was in the Court for many days, he never appeared as a witness in support of his claim.

Te Wheoro seemed to found some of his right to this land on the assistance and support afforded by Waikato to Apihai when they were reinstated by Te Wherowhero after the days of Ngapuhi; but whatever claim the Waikatos may have on this ground, and even if their claims were not compensated by the gift of land of which we have had evidence, it is quite clear that Te Wheoro is not the person entitled by position or connection with the tribes who gave assistance, to urge them.

The Court is therefore of opinion that Wiremu Te Wheoro and Hawira Maki have no interest, according to Maori custom, in the Orakei estate.