Other indexes
Māori bibliography at Te Whare Wananga o Waikato. This is available via Library Website. It is an index to miscellaneous material about Māori subjects which does not appear on VOYAGER or in INNZ or Index to New Zealand periodicals. It mainly covers chapters from books, and articles from serial publications which don't usually publish material on Māori topics.

Bibliographies in other books may prove useful. See also:

Taylor, C.R.H. A bibliography of publications on the New Zealand Māori and the Moriori of the Chatham Islands. 1972. [MM, NZ &P 016.995 T23] This covers books and journal articles published prior to 1970. It is organised by subject and includes four pages on Māori land.

The Māori land legislation manual = Te puka ako hanganga mo nga ture whenua Māori.1994. [NZ Glass Case 346.950432 B31 and Davis Law Library].  This includes a annotated bibliography of sources on the Māori Land Court including archival material. See also, the Maori Land Legislation Database.

Mana whenua : traditional Māori land and sea tenure.  Bibliography of published and unpublished sources.

4.4  University of Auckland Research Essays

Research essays by Anthropology and Māori Studies students on the history of various blocks of Māori land are held in the Architecture Library.

4.5  Government Publications

An extremely useful guide to the structure and functions of different government bodies in New Zealand from 1840 is:

Ringer, J.B. An introduction to New Zealand government. 1991  
[NZ & P and NZ & P Quick Reference 354.95 R58]

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives (AJHR)
New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives.... 1858-  [NZ & P 328.95 N56a]

The AJHR comprises a selection of all the documents which have been tabled in parliament since 1858. It includes reports of government departments, commissions of inquiry and select committees, official correspondence and a wide variety of miscellaneous papers, lists and tables. It is a prime source of information on Māori land.
 
Finding Aids
Each volume lists its own table of contents on the first page. Indexes for 1914-1922, 1939-1953, 1954-1963 are on the shelf at the end of the volumes.  A  further index covering the years 1858-1913 is in the NZ Glass Case. Suggested points of entry are names of individual blocks of land and people, also under "Native Affairs" and "Native Affairs--Land", "Commissions"," Petitions", "Committees, Select--Native Affairs", "Committees, Select--Public petitions", "Confiscated lands", " Crown lands", Education--Schools --Native", "Finance--Native" and "Police". The indexing is fairly idiosyncratic and not really comprehensive. See also:

Material by Māori from the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 18601869. 1993.  [MM 354.95 W144o] which includes its own year by year indexes to people, places and iwi.

Māori land claims as recorded in the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives and the Legislative Council, 18551985. 1987. 
[Microfiche 8950]
This is a chronological listing of petitions from Māori regarding land.

Commissions of Inquiry
For a list of New Zealand commissions of this type see:

Robertson, Evelyn. New Zealand Royal commissions, commissions and committees of inquiry, 1864-1981. 1982 [NZ & P Quick Reference 016.3549509 R64]

Mutch, Kevin. Summary and index of Royal and other commissions concerning Māori land claims, 18561975. 1990 [MM 333.0995 M99]

Some Commissions were set up to investigate one or two particular blocks of land. Others looked into the whole field of Māori land legislation. Of particular interest for a general overview of the situation, and much quoted by historians, is the 1891 Rees-Carroll-Mackay Commission on Native Land Laws. In this league also are the Stout-Ngata Commission of 1907-1908 and the Prichard-Waetford Commission of 1965. The Hawkes Bay Native Lands Alienation Commission of 1873 has also been the subject of much interest. The following is a list of commissions of more general scope.

Hawkes Bay Native Lands Alienation Commission. [AJHR 1873, G-7] Reported on the enforced sales (to clear debts) of huge areas of Hawkes Bay land under the original 1865 10 owner legislation.

West Coast Commission [AJHR 1879, G-3B; 1880, G-2; 1881, G-5; 1882, G-5; 1883 G-3; 1884, A-5] Set up to sort out Raupatu lands in Taranaki. See Raupatu Document Bank for files.

Native claims to land etc., Poverty Bay. (H.T. Clarke) [AJHR Session II, G4]

Native Land Laws [AJHR 1891, G-1 and G-1B] See G-1A for a review of the legislation to 1890.

Middle Island Native Claims [AJHR 1891, G-7, G-7A]

Native Lands and Native Land Tenure (R. Stout and A. Ngata) [1907, G-1 etc.; 1908. G-1 etc; 1909, G-1 etc]

This commission sat in different locations around New Zealand and produced comprehensive lists of lands in Māori ownership, reports on each region and a history of legislation. See AJHR 1907, G-1C for a review of legislation from 1862-1907

Native Land Claims (R.N. Jones)[AJHR 1921, G-5]

Confiscated lands (Sir William Sim)[AJHR 1928, G-7] See files in the Raupatu Document Bank for more information.

Rating of Native Land [AJHR 1933, G-11]

Native Affairs Commission [AJHR 1934, G-11] Looked at Ngata's land development scheme

Surplus Lands Commission (Sir Michael Myers)[AJHR 1948, G-8] "Surplus lands" were lands retained by the Government after the Old Land Claims Commission refused to award them to claimants.

Māori Land Board Leases (D.J.Dalglish)[AJHR 1951, G-5]

Taxation of Māori authorities [AJHR 1952, B4] Covers East Coast Commission lands and other lands.

Māori Affairs Department (Hunn Report) [AJHR 1961, G-10] Contains sections on Land Settlement and Land Titles. See p.92 for a subject index to legislation.

Māori Land and Māori Land Court (Prichard-Waetford Report)
Published as: New Zealand.Committee of Inquiry into the Laws affecting Māori Land and Jurisdiction and Powers of the Māori Land Court. Report...1965. [NZ & P 333.0995 N532]

Māori Reserved land (B.Sheehan)[AJHR,1975, H-3]

Māori Leasehold Land (W.TeR.Mete-Kingi)
Report published as: New Zealand. Committee Appointed to Investigate Problems Associated with Farming Māori Leasehold Land. Farming of Māori leasehold land : report of the Committee. 1978 [NZ & P 333.3240995 N53]

Māori Trustee (M.G.McKellar)
[Report published as:New Zealand. Committee appointed to Review the Operations of the Māori Trustee. The role of the Māori Trustee : report...1979. [MM 347.650995 N531]

Māori Land Courts (Thaddeus McCarthy)[1980, H3]

Other reports in the AJHR (a selection)
Papers relative to the working of the Native Land Court Acts [AJHR 1871, A-2A]

Martin, William. Memorandum of the operation of the Native Lands Court [AJHR 1871, A-2]

Rees, W.L. The Native land laws : memorandum on. [AJHR 1884 Session II, G-2]

Report on the Native Land Disposition Bill [AJHR 1885 I2B] 75pp.
 Includes evidence from Carroll, Wahanui, Hikawera, Fenton and Fitzgerald

Native Lands Settlement and Administration Bill (proposed) [AJHR 1898 I3A and 1899 I3A]
The first of 142 pages includes evidence in English and Māori from Te Heuheu, Herepete Rapihana, Mohi Te Atahikoia, Paratene Ngata and Tamahau Mahupuku.

Report on the Māori Land Laws Amendment Bill and the Māori Councils Bill [AJHR 1903 I3A]

Report on the petition of Te Wherowhero Tawhiao and 276 others re Māori Land Councils Bill
[AJHR 1905 I3B]

Ngata, Apirana T. Native land development. 1931. [AJHR 1931, G-10] which includes an overview of the history of Māori land tenure and development schemes as well as lists and maps of individual blocks.

New Zealand. Parliament. Legislative Council.  Journals and appendix to the journals of the Legislative Council of New Zealand. [NZ & Pacific Storage 328.95N531]
The 1874 volume includes the opinions of 5 judges on the 1873 Act.

British Parliamentary Papers
Great Britain. Parliament. Irish University Press series of British parliamentary papers. Colonies : New Zealand. 1968-1971 [NZ & P 354.95 G78]

New Zealand had no parliament until 1854 and was governed as a colony from Great Britain. The GBPP provides some of the same sort of material as the AJHR for the years from 1840 to 1858. It includes the minutes and reports of the two major select committee inquiries of 1837-38 and 1844, the first of which resulted in the annexation of New Zealand.

The two-volume index covers Australia as well as New Zealand. Suggested points of entry are "Māori", "Māoris" and "Land". References to most individual Māori people and tribes will only be found under the headings "Māoris -- Individuals", and "Māoris--Tribes".

See George Clarke’s report on customary Māori land tenure [Vol.II, pp.355-359]

The NZ & Pacific Collection contains a copy of every Act of Parliament ever passed in New Zealand. They are bound together in volumes each year.

The best index to legislation affecting Māori land is:

• Williams, David. The Māori land legislation manual = Te puka ako hanganga mo nga ture whenua Māori.1994. [NZ Glass Case 346.950432 B31 and Davis Law Library].  This is an annotated list of the most significant Māori land legislation from 1840 to 1993 with notes on the impact of specific Acts.
• See also, the Maori Land Legislation Database. The database provides a summary of all New Zealand legislation since 1840 (including private and local Acts) which has affected Maori or Maori land. It also gives brief notes on the historical context and the impact of each Act cited, with references to other Government publications.

There are 3 other methods of finding historical legislation.

1. Use the NZP wall chart of current legislation (on the end of the row of shelves containing the NZ Statutes) to find the Act in force which applies to the area you are interested in. At the end of that Act there will be a list of earlier Acts amended or repealed. These can then be located and the trail of obsolete legislation followed back to the original British law.
2. The New Zealand and Pacific Collection holds copies of indexes to New Zealand laws from 1908,1929 and 1931.

   New Zealand. Index to the laws of New Zealand. 1909. [NZ & P 346.3 N56si] etc.

   These cover local and personal Acts as well as public general Acts and Provincial Ordinances from the 1854-1876 provincial government period. There is a subject index to Public General Statutes in force and an alphabetical listing of all obsolete and repealed Statutes.

3. The index to the Consolidated Statutes of 1908 gives an excellent chronological list of New Zealand Statutes to that date with dates of repeal.

   New Zealand. The Consolidated Statutes of the Dominion of New Zealand. [NZ & P 346.3 N56c]

See also:

Wily, H.J. The abridgement of New Zealand case law. [NZ & P 346.5 W75]
 Volume 10, pp.17-164 lists 572 cases in the interpretation of Māori land legislation, covering the years 1861 to 1965.

Māori Land Legislation Timeline 1880-1998. A chronological listing of Maori land legislation and important events effecting land legislation from 1840 to1998.

4.7  New Zealand Parliamentary Debates
[NZ & P 328.95 N53]

Also known as Hansard. An excellent source of contemporary thinking on particular issues. Most debate is about particular bills, although there are also questions. Once the date of an Act is known it is easy to find the debates about it by looking for the same year of the N.Z.P.D.volumes. Generally, each volume of the Debates will include an index to the contents of that volume and one of the volumes for the session, labelled "Sessional Index", will contain a composite index to the whole session. Debates are indexed under the names of members, the short titles of Bills (N.B. sometimes all Bills are grouped together under the heading "Bills") and subjects of questions. New Zealand had two Houses of Parliament until 1949. The upper house was called the Legislative Council(L.C.) and the lower house the House of Representatives (H.R.) Often legislation follows investigations by the Government department involved and these can be looked for in the AJHRs of the preceding years.

4.8  New Zealand Gazette
[NZ & P 354.95 N533]

The NZ Gazette is a weekly publication of official government notices and proclamations. It includes notices of Māori Land Court sittings, appointments of court officials, appointments of trustees, lists of government lands available for sale and selection, proclamations of lands restricted for Crown purchase under the Immigration Acts of 1871 and 1877, notifications of land taken for public works, lists of alienations under the Act of 1894 etc. The lists of lands for sale include brief descriptions and prices per acre.

There is an index at the beginning of each volume and indexes to each separate issue at the end of the issue.

4.9  Turton (Turton's Deeds)
[NZGC 333.0995 M29]

Comprises 4 volumes of official documents, deeds and survey plans relating to early private and Government Māori land purchases. New Zealand Company claims were dealt with separately and are not included in these volumes.

1. Turton, Hanson. An epitome of official documents relative to Native Affairs and land purchases in the North Island of New Zealand. 1883 [NZ Glass Case 333.0995 M29o, and Microfiche 90-33]
   
   This volume includes material relating to both private and government land purchases, comprising official correspondence, documents and reports. It is arranged chronologically and by area. The reports of the Land Purchase Department are arranged by district and contain material relating to individual blocks. Other sections relate to the Native Land Court, Native Reserves, Native land tenure and the 5 and 10 percent reserves.
    
2. Māori deeds of old private land purchases in New Zealand from the year 1815 to 1840, with pre-emptive and other claims....1882. [NZGC 333.0995 M29]

   This volume covers the so-called "Old Land Claims". Private individuals who claimed to have bought land in New Zealand before 1840 had to present their claims to a commission for adjudication. About 1000 claims were considered covering 10 million acres. (New Zealand Company claims were dealt with separately and are not included in these volumes.) The commission awarded 292,475 acres to the claimants; 204,000 acres, the so-called "surplus lands" were retained by the Government. These were the subject of a Commission of Inquiry in 1948. (See AJHR, 1948, G-8) The archives of the Old Land Claims Commission are held at National Archives, Wellington. An inventory to these archives is held at NZGC 333.0995 N53a. The "Pre-emptive Claims" comprised land bought directly from Māori vendors when the Fitzroy Government briefly relaxed the prohibition on private purchases in 1844. A total of 250 claims were involved.
   There are internal indexes to Block names and by district. Other looseleaf indexes are available to the names of the vendors and purchasers.
   References:

   Lee, Jack. The Old Land Claims in New Zealand. 1993. [NZ Glass Case 333.0995 L47]
   Wyatt, Philippa. The Old Land Claims and the concept of "sale". 1991 [Thesis 91-152]
   See also the various submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal in the Muriwhenua claim.

3. Māori deeds of land purchases in the North Island of New Zealand. 1877 [NZGC 333.0995m29d]
   Covers government land purchases from 1840 to 1877. Access by area and block name.
   
4. Plans of land purchases in the North Island of New Zealand. 1878 NZGC 333.0995 M29p]
   Two volumes. Includes only Government purchases from 1840 to 1877. The second alphabetical index at the front of the volume for Auckland has been paginated. The plans are also arranged by district.

N.B. Similar material about the South Island can be found in:

Mackay, Alexander. A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island.
 1872, 1873. [NZGC 328.95 N53n].

Sections cover land purchases, reserves, schools, the Native Land Court and the census There is also a schedule of deeds and an annotated list of Acts of Parliament.

4.10  New Zealand Māori Land Court

The Library holds a complete set of Māori Land Court minute books from 1865 to 1975 on microfilm. These are housed in the Microtexts Reading Room, Level G. Hard-bound volumes of almost all of the Tai Tokerau district minute books are held in the Matauranga Māori Collection, Level G.

The Māori Land Court operates an information office in Auckland. There are no historical records there, however, you can obtain application forms, search the Maori Land Online database and talk to Māori Land Court staff.

135 Kolmar Rd
PO Box 23358
Papatoetoe

Ph: (09) 279 5850
Fax: (09) 279 5852

email mlcpapatoetoe@courts.govt.nz

You can also make enquiries via their website: http://www.justice.govt.nz/maorilandcourt/services.htm

Other historical Māori Land Court records for Tokerau, Waikato-Maniapoto and Waiariki, such as succession registers, rehearing registers, partition registers and correspondence are held at National Archives, Auckland. 

Regional offices of the Māori Land Court at Whangarei, Rotorua and Hamilton hold block files, minute books, application files of various kinds and nominal indexes.

Title to each block of land had to be investigated by the Māori Land Court before it could be sold or leased. Almost the whole country, with the exception of those areas already sold before 1865 and the confiscated blocks, was brought before the court for this original title investigation before 1910. Further court hearings were held in subsequent years to create partitions of these original blocks, and to award succession to the descendants of the original owners. From the 1880s rehearings were held to enquire into all the dealings in particular blocks since the original title investigation. Relative Interests and Equitable Owners hearings divided interests among the listed owners and added to titles the names of the rest of the hapu in cases where blocks had originally been awarded to a handful of rangatira as representatives for the tribe. An Appellate Court was set up in 1894 to hear appeals. Some Appellate Court minutes were recorded in separate minute books. Others were entered in the ordinary court books. A Validation Court was set at the same time to investigate blocks where the ownership had become very confused by changes in the legislation, with powers to retrospectively validate transactions entered into in good faith.

From 1900 to 1908 Māori controlled Papatupu Block committees investigated title to large areas of land in various districts. Minutes of these hearings, in Māori, have survived. Some, from Tai Tokerau, are held in the Matauranga Māori Collection, Level G.

Minute books of Māori Land Councils and Boards set up by the Māori Land Administration Act, 1900 and later legislation to act us trustees for the owners in various blocks, are part of the Microtexts Room microfilm archive for some districts.

Unofficial Māori language records of hearings on a few blocks were sometimes made by owners or assessors and copies of some can be found in Special Collections archives, Level G.

4.11  Finding Aids to the Māori Land Court Minute Books

Māori Land Court Minute Books Index (MLCMBI) 1865-1910

A searchable online database, The Māori Land Court Minute Books Index (MLCMBI) contains over 90,000 records and indexes over 1100 minute books between 1865 and 1910, from the Taitokerau, Waikato-Maniapoto, Tairawhiti, Waiariki, Aotea, Takitimu, and Waipounamu Māori Land Court Districts. The database is available to University students and staff from the Library's homepage. 

The database is available for by NZ Institutions and private researchers.
More information about the MLCMBI is available.

Finding Aids 1865-1975
General Indexes are held for the periods 1865-1900, 1900-1962, 1962-1975.
Separate volumes of the 1900-1962 index relate to each Māori Land Court district. Ask for these at the Special Collections Reception Desk. Access is only by date, place of sitting, name of minute book and judge.

Each minute book (with one or two exceptions) has its own block index at the beginning or end of the volume. Most also have an index to succession orders by the name of the deceased person. Access to a particular case about a particular block of land is difficult unless you have a date or other reference.

Sometimes the quickest way is to obtain a copy of the original survey map of the block from LINZ (Land Information New Zealand) and look at the dates which were written on it each time it was brought into the court. It is also possible to look at block files for each area at district offices of the Māori Land Court.

4.13  Maps

The Maps Room, Level M, has complete sets of the imperial and metric series of cadastral maps for New Zealand and some earlier composite sheets, There is a selection of composite cadastral maps in the Māori Historical Map Collection which can be used to ascertain the location, boundaries and names of blocks in a particular area. The names of many of the original blocks and later subdivisions can be picked up from these, also the numbers of the original survey maps.

LINZ (Land Information New Zealand) Auckland at the Price Waterhouse Building in Federal Street has a copy of every survey map ever registered for Northland and Auckland as far south as Mercer. Other regional offices hold maps covering the rest of the country. They are indexed by block name in the Index to Māori Blocks and the Parish Register. A computer index can be used to search for plans by geographic location.  Advice on Access to Māori Land Information is listed on their website.

Māori Land Information Base
This database provides current information on blocks of land under the Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993. It includes cadastral maps, acreages and ownership status. Access is by block name or by zeroing in on any part of New Zealand from an initial map of the whole country. Larger scale maps can also give an overall picture of Māori land ownership in different parts of the country.