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Map of Canterbury and Otago reserves for Ngāi Tahu
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TitleNative reserves in and around the Canterbury settlement
DescriptionThis map illustrates the work of Walter Mantell, who became the 'commissioner for extinguishing native titles, Middle Island (South Island)' in August 1948.
His first task was to set aside reserves for Ngāi Tahu within a large and ill-defined piece of land known as the Canterbury block, of 13,551,400 acres. This had been purchased for £2,000 from some Ngāi Tahu by Henry Tacy Kemp. The Canterbury Purchase, signed on 12 June 1848 became known as Kemp's Deed.
The deed would remain a contentious transaction for Ngāi Tahu, because of the underhand and careless way it was negotiated, the absence of agreed boundaries of the block, and the devastating impact it would have on its people and their traditional ways of life. The deed promised the iwi it would be provided with schools and hospitals and that their mahika kai (food gathering sites) would be retained. These promises were broken.
In 1848 after the signing of the deed, Mantell was instructed by the Crown to induce Ngāi Tahu to combine their many settlements into as few localities as possible and to “reserve to the natives ample portions of land for their present and prospective wants”.
This map shows how Mantell interpreted this directive. It was produced after he travelled throughout the block with the surveyor Alfred Wills to ascertain which parts should be set aside for Ngāi Tahu. The two Taumutu reserves shown here, like the others on the map, were centred around existing gardens and did not take into account the need for a wide-ranging network of mahika sites across the plains.
In a decision he would later come to regret, he allocated a meagre 6,359 acres for Ngāi Tahu use, just 0.04% of the total block.
"Not only did the Crown fail to set aside adequate reserves for Ngāi Tahu (the average area being 10 acres per person), but the Crown also determined that mahinga kai sites were restricted to those areas currently under cultivation as gardens, or the places where there were fixed structures such as eel weirs. As a result, Ngāi Tahu lost ownership and control of, and access to, all of their traditional mahinga kai." (Ngāi Tahu, 2017).Date1848 - 1849Source'Black Map. Native Reserves in Canterbury'. From Archives New Zealand R22667990
DescriptionThis map illustrates the work of Walter Mantell, who became the 'commissioner for extinguishing native titles, Middle Island (South Island)' in August 1948.His first task was to set aside reserves for Ngāi Tahu within a large and ill-defined piece of land known as the Canterbury block, of 13,551,400 acres. This had been purchased for £2,000 from some Ngāi Tahu by Henry Tacy Kemp. The Canterbury Purchase, signed on 12 June 1848 became known as Kemp's Deed.
The deed would remain a contentious transaction for Ngāi Tahu, because of the underhand and careless way it was negotiated, the absence of agreed boundaries of the block, and the devastating impact it would have on its people and their traditional ways of life. The deed promised the iwi it would be provided with schools and hospitals and that their mahika kai (food gathering sites) would be retained. These promises were broken.
In 1848 after the signing of the deed, Mantell was instructed by the Crown to induce Ngāi Tahu to combine their many settlements into as few localities as possible and to “reserve to the natives ample portions of land for their present and prospective wants”.
This map shows how Mantell interpreted this directive. It was produced after he travelled throughout the block with the surveyor Alfred Wills to ascertain which parts should be set aside for Ngāi Tahu. The two Taumutu reserves shown here, like the others on the map, were centred around existing gardens and did not take into account the need for a wide-ranging network of mahika sites across the plains.
In a decision he would later come to regret, he allocated a meagre 6,359 acres for Ngāi Tahu use, just 0.04% of the total block.
"Not only did the Crown fail to set aside adequate reserves for Ngāi Tahu (the average area being 10 acres per person), but the Crown also determined that mahinga kai sites were restricted to those areas currently under cultivation as gardens, or the places where there were fixed structures such as eel weirs. As a result, Ngāi Tahu lost ownership and control of, and access to, all of their traditional mahinga kai." (Ngāi Tahu, 2017).
Date1848 - 1849Source'Black Map. Native Reserves in Canterbury'. From Archives New Zealand R22667990Connections
ImageLoss of Ngāi Tahu mahika kai through Kemp's DeedMore InformationSee original source of map in Archives New ZealandRead about Kemp's Deed on the Ngāi Tahu websiteRead about Walter Mantell in the Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyRead more about the Taumutu 'native reserves' in Kareao at Ngāi Tahu Archives
More InformationSee original source of map in Archives New ZealandRead about Kemp's Deed on the Ngāi Tahu websiteRead about Walter Mantell in the Dictionary of New Zealand BiographyRead more about the Taumutu 'native reserves' in Kareao at Ngāi Tahu ArchivesClick on the image to add
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Map of Canterbury and Otago reserves for Ngāi Tahu (1848 - 1849). Selwyn Stories, accessed 07/04/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/6705
