page_title: Hutt Valley Campaign
section_title: Spain commission
hierarchical_section_title: Hutt Valley Campaign / Background to war / Spain commission
caption_attribution_description: English: Ngati Toa Maori chief Te Rangihaeata, artist K.L. Sutherland
context_page_description: The Hutt Valley Campaign is an armed conflict in the lower North Island of New Zealand between indigenous Māori and British settlers and military forces in 1846. The campaign was among the earliest of the 19th century New Zealand Wars that were fought over issues of land and sovereignty. It was preceded by the Wairau affray and followed by the Wanganui campaign and was triggered by much the same pressures—the careless land purchasing practices of the New Zealand Company, armed government support for settler land claims, and complex intertribal tensions between local Māori. The three conflicts also shared many of the same combatants.
  The campaign's most notable clashes were the Māori dawn raid on an imperial stockade at Boulcott's Farm in the Hutt Valley on 16 May 1846 in which eight British soldiers and at least two Māori died, and the Battle of Battle Hill from 6–13 August as British troops, local militia and kūpapa Māori pursued a Ngāti Toa force led by chief Te Rangihaeata through steep and dense bushland. Ngāti Toa chief Te Rauparaha was taken into custody during the campaign; he was detained without charge in Auckland for two years.
context_section_description: In January 1841 Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Lord John Russell appointed lawyer William Spain as Land Claims Commissioner to investigate and determine the validity of the New Zealand Company purchases. Spain arrived in Auckland in December and began his hearings into the Port Nicholson dealings in May 1842.
  The New Zealand Company frustrated Spain's efforts to make a full investigation of its entitlement to land and in June 1843 it pushed ahead with surveying of the disputed Wairau Plains in the South Island, despite requests by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata to halt pending Spain's decision on the legality of the purchase.
  An abortive bid by settlers and company representatives to arrest the two chiefs for impeding them resulted in the bloody Wairau Affray.
  In a preliminary report in 1843 Spain stated that many of the Māori taking part in the original Port Nicholson transaction in 1839 would not have understood that by signing the deed they were selling their land, including pā and cultivations. He noted that "the greater portion of the land claimed by the Company in the Port Nicholson district, and also in the district between Port Nicholson and Wanganui, including the latter place, has not been alienated by the natives to the New Zealand Company; and that the other portions of the same districts have been only partially alienated by the natives to that body".
  Despite the company's inability to prove it had made a valid purchase of land—and the Treaty of Waitangi's guarantee that Māori would have undisturbed possession of their lands so long as they wished to retain them—Spain in early 1843 ceased public hearings and began serving as an arbitrator or umpire in negotiations between the New Zealand Company and Protector of Aborigines George Clarke Junior on how Māori should be "compensated" for the alienation of their land.
  Without consulting Māori, the two sides agreed on 29 January 1844 that the New Zealand Company would make a further £1500 payment as compensation "to natives who may be entitled to receive it" for about 67,000 acres, including surveyed sections in the Hutt Valley.
  Spain convened a special sitting of the Court of Land Claims at Te Aro pā on 23 February where he informed its occupants of the agreement and asked them to sign deeds of release in exchange for payment. The deeds indicated acceptance of "an absolute surrender of all our title to all our claims in all our lands which are written in the Document" except pā, cultivations, sacred places and reserves. Te Aro Māori demanded further payment, but relented four days later when Ngāti Mutunga chief Pōmare—visiting the area from his new home in the Chatham Islands—advised them to accept the offer. Te Aro gave a third of their £300 payment to Pōmare, who then returned to the Chatham Islands. Another £530 was distributed to Māori of Kumutoto, Pipitea and Tiakiwai pā the same day.
  Spain, who in early February had gained in-principle agreement from Te Rauparaha about compensating Ngāti Toa for land at Port Nicholson, met the chief again on 8 and 9 March 1844 at Porirua, this time also with Te Rangihaeata. When he attempted to secure their signatures to a deed of release for their interest in land at Port Nicholson, Te Rauparaha claimed he had previously been unaware it would include payment for Heretaunga, which he now refused to relinquish. Te Rauparaha said he considered "Port Nicholson" to mean all the land seaward of the Rotokakahi Stream, about 2 km up the Heretaunga (Hutt) River. Spain raised his cash offer, offering Te Rauparaha another £100 to compensate for lost crops if he ensured Taringa Kuri left the valley immediately.
  Taringa Kuri then began cutting a line through bush at Rotokakahi, warning government officials it was the northern boundary of "Port Nicholson" land for which the New Zealand Company had secured its deeds of settlement. On 12 November, Clarke wrote a document acknowledging the receipt by Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata of the £400 for the "surrender" of Heretaunga. The Waitangi Tribunal noted that the document di
caption: Ngāti Toa Maori chief Te Rangihaeata.
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