1840: The Ngati Whatua RFP

March 12, 2025

By AHNZ

Ngati Whatua had once been a successful Maori tribal brand with head office in today’s Auckland City. This territory, the Tamaki isthmus, had become such a competitive market that nobody in New Zealand could meet the operational fixed costs. Bracken and manuka took over where once there had been terraces and cultivations and so it remained for almost a generation. This is the story of the Ngati Whatua’s Request for Proposal (RFP) to a powerful offshore multinational and a deal that would permit the tribe to re-enter their old marketplace.

The CEO of Ngati Whatua back then was businessman Davis Tamaki, a “very acute and intelligent, particularly as to the interests of his tribe, in all his transactions with Europeans.” according to Terry (1841.) Also known as William Davis, and as Te Reweti Taranaki, his business school education had come from the Missionaries. Davis was the only literate Maori in the executive based on the fact that he is the only one who signed his name rather than make a mark on the contract. It was his uncle, Apihai Te Kawau, who was chairman of the board for the tribe but all the commercial decisions were conducted by Davis.

William Hobson’s Gang established itself in the Bay of Islands in January 1840 as a new subsidiary of New South Wales which itself was a Crown Colony of Britain. It was, as yet, a small start-up but this new warm wind from the north excited Ngati Whatua’s interest. They had, of course, lost their prime location 15 or so years before and been living as refugees and exiles. New South Wales, secured by the British Navy, was certainly a potential partner with the leverage to re-open the Tamaki isthmus for business and hold it.

Davis led a delegation of 7 chiefs to the local New South Wales branch office at Kororareka/Russell to treat with Hobson. On this long trek there were also 2 delegates from the Waikato tribe who kept a watchful and perhaps suspicious eye on proceedings. Their own Board Chairman, Te Wherowhero, had been the main protector for the struggling Whatuas up to this time. However, the Waikatos were not powerful enough for what Davis Tamaki had in mind. Ngati Whatua was never going to have the staff or capital to operate in Auckland again without someone who could bring the big guns.

“Musket Wars Auckland: This is where you go to die. The Kill Box.” – 1821: Musket Wars Auckland, AHNZ

“On behalf of their paramount chief Te Kawau and his tribe Ngati Whatua o Tamaki, they invited Hobson to live on the Waitemata…Te Kawau’s branch of the Ngati Whatua iwi had become small in numbers. The tribe felt threatened by powerful neighbours, Nga Puhi to the north and Ngati Paoa to the south. It was Te Kawau’s conviction that if Hobson could be persuaded to set up his government on the Waitemata, Ngati Whatua would have the most powerful European in the country as their Pakeha Maori. Then they would be secure at last.” – A hearty three cheers for Hobson’s choice, Russell Stone, NZH (2000)

“The tradition was told to the late Mr. S. Percy Smith, a surveyor in the Kaipara district in 1860, by his friend Te Reweti, an old chief of the Ngati-Whatua and Te Taou tribes. In early 1840, while the tribes of the Auckland isthmus and the shores of Hauraki were still in a state of unrest, suspicious of their neighbours to the north and south, a meeting of the remnants of the various clans was held at Okahu, the old village at Orakei, to consider their course of action for ensuring their safety…” – extract from Coming of the Flag. The Town on the Waitemata, James Cowan, Auckland Star (1928,) Papers Past

“…a man who communed much with the unseen world. He went into a trance, and while in this state, under the influence of his gods, as he later described it, he heard a spirit voice chanting a song. This song he repeated to the people upon emerging from his trance…What is the wind that softly blows? ’Tis the breeze of the north-west the north that drives on shore the nautilus. If I bring from the north the handsome carved post and place it here in Waitemata my vision will then be fulfilled.” The assembled people immediately grasped the significance of this mata (song of prophecy). They interpreted it as god-given counsel to the tribes. The nautilus (pupu tarakihi), which sometimes drifts onto the North Auckland shores from the tropics, was understood as the ship of the Pākehā. The carved post (pou-whakairo) was the flag of England, which had recently, as the tribes were all aware, been hoisted on its mast at the Bay of Islands. It was clear to the Māori mind that if the British Governor could be persuaded to transfer his seat of authority from Kororāreka to Waitemata, the tribes of Tamaki would have a powerful protector and could occupy their land in peace.” – ibid

“Immediately, the Ngāti-Whātua and their kin sent delegates to the north to persuade Governor Hobson to come and settle on the debatable land.” – ibid

“Once the Ngati Whatua chiefs had signed the provisional deed of sale on 18 September, the ‘ceremony of taking formal possession in the name of Her Majesty was duly performed’ at Point Britomart. Captain Rough ran up the flag of St George amidst the cheers of bystanders.” – Stone (2002)

“As part of the proposal, representatives (The Hobson Gang) from the offshore corporation (British Crown) are invited to establish a local presence in the firm’s home city. Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, the Ngati Whatua firm will become a subsidiary of the larger company, integrating into its corporate structure to ensure long-term stability and growth.” – AHNZ

Davis Tamaki, armed with his Art of the Deal pitch, was not able to take his business delegation to the capital just yet. Ngati Whatua was vexed over this big decision and so convened an extraordinary Annual General Meeting of the tribal executive at at Kohimarama. What settled the matter at last was their ‘chief economist’ taking the floor and producing a pro-forma forecast from his department. Based on his arcane algorithms the prediction model forecast great success for the merger. Armed with these projections and the fervent hopes of all the shareholders, Davis set out overland for his meeting with William Hobson.

In short, it was met with great favor. Hobson had just returned (14 February, 1840) to his head office from a difficult pitch meeting at the Hokianga (Mangungu.) It had been a tough crowd with what the Hobson Gang described as a “sinister influence” at work to oppose them¹. An existing community of free people, Anarchists really, were doing just fine and didn’t wish to have their property revoked and Hobson’s new protection racket set up. Men like Frederick Manning were rebuked by Hobson for resisting and called a “worthless class of British subjects.” As he was leaving, Hobson was intercepted by 50 chiefs who threw his blankets back at him with a written letter saying he had better not think his Queen had been received here! Ref. 1840: Hobson’s Treaty Refused, Blankets Thrown Back At Him, AHNZ

Waiting for Hobson was the Ngati Whatua delegation and a representative of the Manukau Company, William Symonds. The two parties may have made this business trip together. Both groups had good prospects to offer and best of all they wanted Hobson, desired a partnership. It’s good to feel wanted when you’re trying a risky new venture, flying by the seat of your pants, and the people whose communities you are trying to take over with no authority to do so think you’re an imposter. That was the position that Hobson was in at the Bay of Islands. Even the captain of his support ship, Joseph Nias, thought Hobson was faking a rank and authority he had never been invested with. The gang members provided Hobson by his superior in Sydney, George Gipps, were a volatile mixture of rejects designed to undermine his efforts (especially Willoughby Shortland.) Davis’ offer of a joint venture was the universe throwing William some luck when he needed it. Symonds too; Hobson quickly recruited him to his  Legislative Council (gang.)

On 21 February they all sailed from Waitangi together, the new friends, for the Waitemata Harbour. On 20 March the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by Te Kawau for Ngati Whatua. On 18 September, Hobson proclaimed the new capital of his Crown Colony: Auckland. “The handsome carved post,” the flag of St George, would fly over Tamaki Makaurau as predicted. On 20 October, 1840, the final deed of sale for the purchase of the site of Auckland was signed by Te Kawau, Davis Tamaki, and others. A large triangle of land was purchased with the apex at Mt Eden. Auckland’s government right away started exploiting the land for money by a practise called Ring Fencing which they have been doing ever since and to this very day.

Not until the new year would Hobson learn that his gamble had paid off. His backers in the Colonial Office had ratified all the lies he had told about sovereignty and being Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand. They made the lies true with their big rubber stamps and gazettes and now what had been Live Action Role Play became sanctified as International Law. He had done it! However, the ordeal had contributed to Hobson having a stroke, becoming partially paralyzed, and then dying of his final stroke on 10 September, 1842. The man who would be king lasted only a few months just like the protagonist in the Rudyard Kipling story by the same title. However, this was a realm that would last. Ref. 1842: Death of Hobson, AHNZ

Davis Tamaki had not only been saved but would now thrive with the transplanted Sydney people at the new Capital of New Zealand, Auckland. It is still the biggest and most wealthy place in the country today despite capital status shifting to Wellington in 1865. Ngati Whatua and The Government have been in a sort of partnership in the sense that they flex and change the meaning of the legal deal that was supposedly finalised in New Zealand’s early days. In a given year it means whatever they need it to in order to extract more power, property, and money from the poor old settlers and their descendents who pay the bills. Even if all the so-called grievances up to today were fully and finally settled (again) then it would only be a matter of time before some new ones were contrived. The pay-off for this is too large and the people too easily fooled not to keep doing it!

—
1  Felton Mathew, Journals 1840-47, ENZB p51

Ref. New Zealand its Advantages and Prospects as a British Colony, Charles Terry (1841)

Ref. From Tamaki-Makaurau-Rau to Auckland, Russell Stone (2002)

Ref. 1840: Purchase of Auckland, AHNZ

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