119 January 1840: private purchases of land direct from Māori are deemed to be invalid after January (Waitangi Tribunal: 2014: 340). There is some question as to whether the Crown was protecting Māori interests by doing this (ie, so that Māori kept enough land for themselves) or if the Crown was motivated to profit from preemption (Waitangi Tribunal: 2014: 435). Nevertheless, in September 1840 government officials successfully negotiated with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei for the transfer of around 3500 acres of land, which today covers the central city Human Rights Commission area of Auckland. Over the next two years, Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei transferred a further 29,000 acres to facilitate European settlement on the Tamaki isthmus. In return they received around £640 plus other goods. Before 1845, the Crown profited from its sales of some of this land by £68,865. The Crown also failed to set aside the promised 10% of land for a reserve (Deed of Settlement Between the Crown and Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, 2011). April 1840: Troops arrive and put down a ‘threatening’ Māori crowd in the town of Kororāreka “The use of coercive force in the process of acquiring New Zealand… was now explicit” (Hill, 1986: 91). 1840: The Māori population declines to 70,000-90,000 (Lange, 1999). Education 1838: Literacy of Māori tamariki is extremely high. British MP Tawell tells the House of Lords that Māori are “as intelligent as any children … anywhere, and … their power of acquisition … greater than our own” (Barrington & Beaglehole 1974: 22). 1841-1850: Sovereignty wars begin, Māori population declines due to the disaster in Māori health, the settler population explodes bringing with it ceaseless demands for land, schools are an assimilation tool, te reo Māori is officially excluded from schools, Ngāi Tahu begins its land claim. Land Following the signing of Te Tiriti, the immigrant settler population explodes and make incessant demands for land. Large-scale European settlement begins. Hobson’s 1839 actions are legitimised by the Land Claims Ordinance 1841 giving the Crown pre-emption over Māori land at the expense of tino rangatiratanga. All “unappropriated” or “waste land”, other than that required for the “necessary occupation of the aboriginal inhabitants of the said Colony” was deemed Crown land. 1845: Commissioner of Lands investigated validity of land purchases before 1840. Many recommendations were never acted upon eg, Wellington was an invalid purchase, but not returned to iwi and no compensation. 1846: The British armed constabulary is established and uses a paramilitary style of surveillance, partly for the purposes of intimidating Māori (Hill, 1986). Rangatiratanga 1843: the Wairau Battle when the local magistrate attempts to claim land at Wairau by trying to arrest Te Rauparaha, firing breaks out and the settlers are routed (Belich 1988: 304). 1845: the sovereignty (land) wars begin. The cause of the wars was white supremacist ideology i.e., the British would not accept parity with or inferiority to Māori (Belich 1988: 304). The first battle is between the Crown and Ngāpuhi; British attempt to ‘punish’ Hone Heke. The British are defeated (Belich, 1988: 29). 1849: Ngāi Tahu begins its land claim concerning the Crown’s methods of in purchasing Ngāi Tahu lands. Ngāi Tahu seeks the 10% reserve of their ancestral land promised by the Crown (Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, 2021). Education Native Trust Ordinance 1844 introduces the policy of assimilation in schools (Māori are to learn to ‘be European’). Education Ordinance, 1847 orders that schools are to teach in English and children are to learn ‘industrial’ skills. Boarding schools are built to remove children from kāinga, but Māori are to provide the land. There is particular emphasis on saving ‘half-caste’ children from “the degradation of being brought up as Maoris” (Barrington & Beaglehole 1974: 39-51).