Taranaki Waste Lands Board

The Taranaki Waste Lands Board was constituted under the Taranaki Waste Lands Act 1874 to manage the sale of confiscated Māori land.

Blocks administered by the Waste Lands Board included the Moa, Waitara-Taramouku, Kopua, Pukemahoe, Onaero-Urenui-Taramoukou-Ruapekapeka, Waipuku, Waipuku-Patea, Manganui-Te Wera, Huiroa, Otoia, Ahuroa-Ratapiko-Manawawiri-Mangaotuku, Mangaehu, Kataroa No. 1, and Pukekino blocks, in all about convert|253000|acre|km2.

The Board commenced proceedings in January, 1875, chaired by Charles Douglas Whitcombe, Taranaki Commissioner of Crown Lands, with William Morgan Crompton, Thomas Kelly, Arthur Standish, and William Neilson Syme standing as members. It oversaw the establishment of the town of Inglewood on January 23, in the Moa district, and held its first land sale on February 20 that year. A major sale of convert|2000|acre|km2 was settled with Colonel Robert Trimble later that year, and in 1876 a block of convert|2000|acre|km2 was sold to Messrs. Jones and McMillan.

In 1877 A. Cracroft Fookes was sold convert|5000|acre|km2 on the Mountain Road for the purpose of forming the Midhirst Special Settlement. The Board authorised the surveying of a new town on the banks of the Patea River on June 11, 1877, and gave it the name Stratford in December that year, when it also authorised the surveying of Waipuku village.

References

* "The History of Taranaki: A Standard Work on the History of the Province" by Benjamin Wells, 1878, Edmondson & Avery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.