Author(s): Maurice Ormsby

Maori | History | Aotearoa New Zealand Non-Fiction | Philosophy

Te Ohaki Tapu - the Formal Pact - was made between 1882 and 1885 by five tribes of the Rohe Potae (King Country) led by Ngati Maniapoto, with the colonial government which needed land for the main trunk railway line. The iwi sought access to the wider money economy, European agricultural technology and development finance. The influence of Utilitarianism - and of its proponent John Stuart Mill, the philosopher and economist - is evident in Te Ohaki Tapu, as it is in the 1835 Ngapuhi declaration of independence and the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. Unlike the Treaty, Te Ohaki Tapu took place in the context of an established New Zealand legal system and a parliamentary democracy. Although the government did not honour the Formal Pact, Ngati Maniapoto did, even to the point of going to war on behalf of its erstwhile enemies. The agreement has yet to be tested in court. The Utilitarian basis of our public policy is still apparent today. It explains the marked difference in approaches to lawmaking between New Zealand and countries such as Australia and the United States.

Contents: CONTENTS He kupu takamua preface - 7; He timatanga korero introduction - 9; 1 The greatest happiness of the greatest number - 13; 2 'Who severed us?' Waikato's challenge to the government - 36; 3 Native Committees: 'A sop to Cerberus' - 68; 4 Land ownership: 'Let the House consider that which is just and right' - 91; 5 Trying to meet each other's views -113; 6 'Some large land sales for revenue purposes'- 149; 7 The pact - 'They never carried it out' - 174; 8 Unjust loss requires rectification - Where does Te Ohaki Tapu lead? - 204; Nga mihi acknowledgements - 218; nga apitihanga appendices ; a Sources of the Treaty of Waitangi by Dr John Lepper - 222; b Maori Land Court minutes: Te Kuiti Conference 1928 - 245; c The Hetet family - 252; d The meaning of Rohe Potae - 254; Kupu apiti endnotes - 255; Rarangi pukapuka bibliography - 277; Kuputohu index - 282

Author Biography: Maurice Ormsby was born in Te Kuiti and grew up on a dairy farm at nearby Te Uira after his parents - John Ormsby, Capt 28 (Maori) Battalion, and nursing sister Kate O'Gorman - returned from World War Two. A member of Ngati Te Waha hapu of Ngati Maniapoto, Maurice holds an MA with first class honours from Canterbury University and a D Phil in Philosophy from Oxford University.