Do Ngai Tahu own the South Island? South Island Land purchases 1844-1864

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]This comes from a government website, and there you can see the address at the top of your screen. The red South Island there represents all the land that a Ngai Tahu once owned um at 1840.

[00:00:13]And you know that you can notice down the bottom there's some little dots there. If you click on those dots, each one of those dots it shows you the pieces of land that Ngai Tahu actually sold. So, when you press the first dot, it says that that part of the South Island, Otakou, was sold for 2,400 lbs by Ngai Tahu in that period, 1844 to 1864.

[00:00:35]Then you click on the next dot, and it shows the next part of the South Island that sold, and that's called the Kemp purchase, which was famous. Kemp was the surname of the British negotiator who worked with the Ngai Tahu to purchase that great big block of land, and he paid 2,000 lbs for that. And then if you click on the next uh little dot down the bottom, you see the next part that was sold was Port Cooper and Port Levy. Now, that's obviously become Littleton, and so it's all been renamed, but 200 lbs and 300 lbs, and it shows the purchasers. And then you click on the next little dot, and it shows the next purchase, which was Murihiku, which was sold for 2,600 lbs. So, in those just those sales there, we see 2/3 of the South Island actually sold by Ngai Tahu to the Crown. Well, let's click on the the next little dot and see what comes up. Now, this is what we call a disputed claim completed 1856, but that claim was sorted out by the Sim Commission. Sim, S.I.M., was the commissioner appointed by the government to investigate any breaches of the treaty on behalf of the Crown since 1840, and they paid out full and final settlements to anybody where there was some sort of dispute. So, full and final settlements were reached in New Zealand in 1960. So, why the heck are any more settlements going on right now? It is unbelievable that these are still happening, but they are. So, let's keep clicking the dots and see what else here comes up. That part there, North Canterbury, was sold for 500 lb and then the next dot, this is the whole of the Kaikoura coast, that was sold for 300 lb. There's only two little bits of the South Island left that Ngai Tahu did not sell. There's one bit of red at the top of the South Island and then the Stewart Island. So, let's click keep clicking on the dots down the below. Well, there that bit goes, that's Arahura and that was sold that's basically the whole West Coast of the South Island was sold for 300 lb.

[00:02:25]And what about Stewart Island? Oh, here we go. Rakiura is Stewart Island, that was sold for 6,000 lb. Now, there you go. Ngai Tahu sold the entire South Island by 1864.