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Maori Deeds of Old Private Land Purchases in New Zealand, From the Year 1815 to 1840, with Pre-Emptive and Other Claims

Deeds—No. 266

Deeds—No. 266.

Te Poinga Block, River Waima, Hokianga District. 1835-38 Hokianga District.

I Nathaniel Turner, Wesleyan Minister of Launceston in Van Dieman's Land, do Te Poinga.Wesleyan Mission.hereby solemnly and sincerely declare that in the latter part of the year 1837, being anxious to form a new Mission Station at Waima in the Northern Island of New Zealand, I purchased from Mr. Wm. Popplewell, a European settler in that District the piece of land No. 1, in the sketch hereunto annexed containing 90 acres or thereabout; and a few months afterwards, I purchased from Manu and two other chiefs whose names I do not at present recollect, the piece of ground marked on the annexed sketch No. 2, containing about 10 acres.
At the time I commenced the negotiation with Mr. Wm. Popplewell for the land [100 acres.] No. 1, he produced to me a document written in the New Zealand language by Mr. Saml. Butler, son of the Revd. John Butler, formerly a Missionary connected with the Church of England purporting to be a conveyance from a Native Chief of the name of Pi who was at that time the principal Chief of the District of Waima and several other Native Chiefs whose names I cannot now recollect, signed with the marks of all the Chiefs and witnessed by the said Saml. Butler and a person I believe named Fowler, a European sawyer. Before concluding from Mr. Popplewell I assembled all the chiefs who had any claim to the land in that neighbourhood and enquired as to Mr. Popplewell's title to the land he had offered for sale. From the conversation which then took place between them, Popplewell and the Chiefs, I learned that Mr. Wm. Popplewell had overpaid the chiefs for the purchase of the land No. 1 and that the chiefs had agreed either to give Mr. Popplewell more land than was contained in No. 1, or to give him a certain number of pigs in lieu thereof being anxious to fix the precise boundary lines of No. 1 to the satisfaction of all the parties concerned. I agreed to give Mr. Popplewell £20 for the purchase of No. 1, and to repay him the £5 he had overpaid the chiefs. The boundary lines of No. 1 were then marked out and agreed to, and all, the chiefs admitted Mr. Popplewell's claim to the Land. Mr. Popplewell conveyed the land to me and at the same time gave me his original title Deed.
About three months after the purchase from Mr. Popplewell, I made another purchase from a Native Chief called Manu and two other Chiefs whose names I cannot now remember of the land No. 2 in the annexed sketch. A Deed was drawn up by (I believe) the Revd. John Whitely which was signed by Manu and the other chiefs in the presence of two of the Wesleyan Missionaries, who signed their names to the Deed as Witnesses; but I cannot at present recollect which of the Missionaries were then in that neighbourhood. I paid for the land No. 2 as follows, that is to say, Ten Pounds in Cash and Five Pounds in Blankets, spades and other articles. There was no person Payment. residing on No. 2 at the time I purchased it. All the deeds connected with the above purchases were in my possession at the Mission Station at Mangungu on the Hokianga river up to the 19th August 1838, when the Mission premises were totally consumed by fire and all the said Deeds were destroyed.

All which matters I conscientiously believe to be true, and I make this Declaration —the provisions of the Act of this Island intituled "An Act for the abolition of Extra-judicial and unnecessary Oaths."

Nathaniel Turner.

Taken before me this 13th day of August 1841, at Launceston.

Jas. Henty,

A Justice of the Peace for Van Dieman's Land and its Dependencies.

A True Transcript of Official Copy of Original Declaration.No. 389f.O.L.C

H. Hanson Turton.

Wellington, 28th November, 1879.