Kohimarama conference, 1860
In 1860 fighting broke out between Māori and British troops in Taranaki over a disputed land transaction. Governor Thomas Gore Browne hoped to convince Māori leaders to support his actions in Taranaki and reject the Māori King movement. He called a conference of chiefs at Kohimarama, Auckland, in mid-1860. Over three weeks Te Tiriti o Waitangi was presented and explained to at least 200 chiefs, including many who had signed it. The chiefs discovered that they had differing understandings of the treaty. Finally they passed a unanimous resolution, the Kohimarama covenant, which both recognised the Crown’s sovereignty and confirmed chiefly rangatiratanga.
The Kohimarama resolution was similar to a formal ratification of the treaty. The government promised to hold further conferences to discuss sharing power, but no more were held. The chiefs who attended the conference expected to play a greater part in decision-making, but they were to be disappointed.
War in Waikato
George Grey, recalled to a second governorship of New Zealand in 1861, saw the King movement as a direct challenge to Crown authority and the future of British settlement. The government responded to the movement by invading Waikato with British troops. This action escalated into warfare that spread to Bay of Plenty and elsewhere. The conflict was officially described as a suppression of Māori who were in rebellion against the government, but some politicians admitted that it was a war to assert British supremacy.
These military actions demonstrated to many Māori that the government had not upheld their rights under the treaty. The subsequent confiscation of Māori land in Waikato, Taranaki, the Bay of Plenty and Hawke’s Bay left a further legacy of bitterness.
Native Land Court
The treaty’s promised protection of Māori land rights was ignored by successive governments. By 1870 almost the entire South Island had been alienated from Māori. The Native Land Court (later the Māori Land Court) converted tribally owned Māori land rights into Crown-granted titles, making the land easier to sell. By the early 1890s around two-thirds of the North Island had also been alienated, and land loss continued through the 19th and 20th centuries.
European settlement expands
By the 1870s Te Tiriti o Waitangi seemed to have disappeared from settler consciousness. It may have been practically unknown to the hundreds of thousands of settlers who flooded to New Zealand to ‘open up’ the country. By the end of the 1870s Māori were outnumbered 10 to one by the European population. Breaches of Māori rights under the treaty escalated as settlement extended across the North Island.
Lack of protection for Māori
It became increasingly clear to Māori that the treaty provided them with very limited protection. Court decisions, shady land dealings and legislation all played a part in undermining the treaty's guarantees. For instance, the treaty could not lessen the impact of the Public Works acts of 1864 and 1876. Together with later legislation, these acts enabled the Crown to compulsorily acquire Māori land for roads, railways and other public works.
The treaty’s promises to Māori of ‘exclusive and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties’ were not upheld by settler developments such as foreshore reclamation, timber floatage (transporting timber downstream through flooding) which smashed fish weirs on rivers, and drainage schemes which damaged eel reserves and freshwater fishing. Local body works and rates were often not fully explained to Māori communities and became major sources of irritation to them.