HISTORY OF THE LAND FROM 1840
 
Prior to 1840 the land upon which the Waiata Shores subdivision now stands was in the rohe of Te Ākitai Waiohua. A commemorative plaque on the children’s playground, Papatakaro, by Gosper Rd, reminds us of this and that Te Ākitai remain mana whenua today as does the display of taonga (treasures) inside Woolworths..
 
In 1842, Ihaka Takaanini, his father Pepene Te Tihi, and four other senior iwi figures sold what was termed the Papakura Block (see map below) to Crown agent, George Clarke. According to “The Alienation of South Auckland Lands” by Husbands and Riddell, this was the first purchase in the Auckland region under the Crown’s pre-emptive rights to buy land from Māori established by the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. There had been earlier purchases but not under Treaty conditions.
 
The Papakura Block extended from Otaimako Creek (by what is now the Auckland Airport), across the flat to what is now Papatoetoe, up the rise to the Redoubt Rd area, from there by an ill-determined route to the southern end of Papakura, and then via the Manukau Harbour shoreline back to Otaimako Creek. The 16,000-acre (6,500 hectare) block was sold to Crown agent George Clarke for £400 and six horses.
 
From this sale, 1,120 acres (450 hectares) were reserved by the sellers and labelled Native Reserve by the Crown.

THE NATIVE RESERVE 1842 – 1863
 
The Papakura Stream was the northern boundary of the reserve, the line of what is now Takanini School Rd from the Papakura Stream continued to the Manukau Harbour south of the Tironui peninsular (Longford Park) was the eastern boundary, and the shoreline of the Manukau Harbour from the intersection with the eastern boundary to the Papakura Stream mouth was the western limit.

In 1863, with his world collapsing around him, Ihaka petitioned Governor Grey for a Crown grant of this Native Reserve land at Papakura. Grey was well-aware of Takaanini’s positive contribution and was strongly urged by Land Commissioners to make this grant. The British saw this as a (last?) chance to avert war.  Grey agreed and in February 1863 the Crown Grant was made.

Complete with wax seal and Grey’s signature in the bottom right-hand corner, the Crown grant document shown below, can be seen at National Archives (Auckland). Ironically, the Auckland archive building sits on land recently re-acquired by Te Ākitai Waiohua. The wiggly line at the top of the map is the Papakura Stream. The double red line through the middle is the Great South Rd. This road had been extended, largely by red-coated British soldiers, to provide military access to the Kiingitanga lands beyond the Bombay Hills. At that time there was no mistaking what the Crown was intending to do.

TAKAANINI’S CROWN GRANT

With war looming, Takaanini reportedly encouraged his people to apply for Crown Grants themselves to protect their interests. In July, Grey decreed that all Māori in the Auckland area sympathetic to the Kiingitanga were to surrender any arms they had and declare their allegiance to the Queen. Their alternative was to leave the district, which most did. The Great South Rd was their escape route.

War began when British troops crossed the Mangatawhiri Creek, the border with the Kiingitanga, on 12 July. Four days later, Takaanini was arrested on suspicion of rebellion with a group of 22 aged relatives and children. They were initially imprisoned at the Ōtāhuhu military barracks. Here a number perished, including Takaanini’s father Pepene and two of his children. The group was then sent in exile to Motuhurakia (now Rakino Island) where Ihaka died in 1864. To the enduring grief of his family and tribe, the military authorities lost track of his body. His final resting place has yet to be located.

Ihaka’s grant was challenged at the Māori Land Court and later Compensation Court hearings because with his death the land passed to his surviving family, his wife Riria Ratauhinga and three of their eight children, Erina, Te Wirihana, and Ihaka the Younger. The. family’s rights to Ihaka’s lands were challenged but re-affirmed through findings of the Māori Land Court. The Court determined that the inherited assets would be held in trust by Court-appointed trustees as required by law.

Erina died in 1867 and Ihaka the Younger in 1883. The only surviving child of eight and the only one to live to adulthood, Te Wirihana, was 26 in 1883. In 1885 he had the grant land surveyed and subdivided for sale. In 1886, the land was sold to Samuel Jackson, an Auckland lawyer whose name endures in the firm of Jackson Russell in Shortland St.

Of particular interest to Waiata Shores residents is the 184-acre Lot 8, the northern-most lot west of the Great South Rd. It was initially leased as were all the western lots. Once securely leased, the lots were put on the market. Ownership moved around – in 1887, Frederick Clark of Kaiwaka was the first to buy from Jackson, but he lasted only one year. In 1888, title was acquired  by James Donaghy, a property collector from Onehunga. Donaghy owned the title until 1898 when he literally went mad and was sentenced to a mental institution after attempting to murder a neighbour. Jackson resumed ownership formally in 1901.

At times the western lots were farmed as a single unit and known in early years as Pah Farm. At other times there were different combinations of lessees and much transfer of leases underneath ownership.  The first lessee of Lot 8 was William Swears, and he held the lease until his death in 1907. Lot 8 was then sold by Jackson to Elizabeth Muir, wife of well-known local farmer Alexander Muir the Younger who had bought several of the other western lots. When Alexander died in the ‘flu epidemic in 1918, Elizabeth sold all the Muir land except Lot 8 to Alfred Watkin, a farmer from Hawera. Elizabeth sold Lot 8 to Abigail Blair who was farming at Huiroa in the backblocks behind Whangamōmona with her husband Walter. At this time, Alfred Watkin’s son Daniel was also farming near the Blairs at Huiroa, which points to some probable connection between the parties. The Blair and Watkin families would soon be farming neighbours in Takaanini. New Zealand was an even smaller world then. Lot 8 was farmed by Abigail’s son, Walter Jnr.

The below image is a subdivision drawing, referencing Ihaka Takaanini’s subdivision of the native reserve in 1886.

LOT 8 AND THE MANUKAU GOLF CLUB

Judging by other maps – and later by photographs – almost all the land west of the Great South Road was farmed into the 1960s. Initially a grazing area for sheep, the surrounding farms turned to dairy as the land was drained and developed. In 1949, the East Tāmaki Dairy Cooperative re-located to the south bank of the Papakura Stream between the Great South Road and the main trunk railway line. While the East Tāmaki Co-op no longer exists, it can be no coincidence that Fonterra operates a major plant just down the road.

The shift to dairying had an impact on golfers. Any golfer will agree that sharing the course with sheep has its problems; but sharing the land with cattle is impossible. Members of the then existing Everslie Golf Club at Beach Rd Papakura and Manurewa Golf Clubs at Hill Rd got together and looked for an alternative site upon which they could amalgamate and where they didn’t have to compete with livestock.

 In 1932, the newly formed Manukau Golf Club found what they were looking for. Abigail Blair, the owner of Lot 8, was happy to lease the club 96 acres for two years with the right of renewal for a further two years. The acreage she offered was bounded on the north by the Papakura Stream, on the east by the Great South Road, and on the south-west by a line from the intersection of Spartan Road and the Great South Road to a point 100 metres or so upriver from the mouth of the Papakura Stream. The lease was extended for a further two years in 1934 with the golf club at that time negotiating a right of purchase at the next renewal.

In 1935, Abigail died, leaving Lot 8 to her son, Walter Jnr, who had been farming the land. A condition of his inheritance was that he respect the “right to purchase” terms of the golf club’s lease. Executor of Abigail’s will, Walter Blair Snr, had Lot 8 DP 390 re-surveyed into two parts. Part 1 was transferred to the Manukau Golf Club on 13 November 1936. The sale was facilitated by a loan of £5,100, virtually the full sale price of £55 per acre, from Elizabeth Muir. Part 2 was sold in 1942 to Leonard and Ada Bennion of Mangere

In the 1950s, the planned southward extension of the Auckland to Hamilton motorway saw a nibbling away at the Bennion’s land. The Crown acquired 3½ acres by the Great South Road at the south-eastern corner of the golf course for construction of the Takanini off-ramp, northbound. The club was compensated by a triangular block of 17½ acres from the Bennion’s Part 2. In March 1960, the Crown purchased the entire residual acreage, but before this happened, the Bennions moved to Park Estate Rd.

A further 8-acre purchase provided a buffer between the club’s southern holes and the neighbouring subdivision, Conifer Grove. The buffer strip transfer was agreed in 1969 and finalised in 1978.

North of the Papakura Stream on land under Manurewa Council jurisdiction were two small plots attached to the golf course. The club owned these plots which were part of Alfred Holmes’ farm (after whom Holmes Road was named). The plots had no road access and were outside the Papakura Council area. Lot 1, the 10^th tee, became “within Papakura” when the river course was altered for flood management purposes. Lot 2 (the old 12^th tee) became redundant when the course was re-configured.

The coloured image above was the official survey produced to show the Crown’s taking of the residue of the “Bennion Block”, Lot 8 of Takaanini’s Grant. Dated 1959, it shows details of the motorway off ramp and the triangle of land taken to compensate the golf club for the off ramp. Note my red arrow indicating Lupton’s Road (now known as Spartan Road).  

Effectively, Part 2 DP 26562 ceased to exist – 13+ acres were taken for the motorway, 3 acres for widening the Great South Road, and 76+ acres for “better utilisation”; “better” probably acknowledged the loss of Part 2 DP 26562 as an effective farm thus allowing Leonard Bennion to be appropriately compensated. The 76 acres went to Conifer Grove Ltd in 1984-87 for housing development.

The Manukau Golf Club continued on its site until 2016 when, having sold the acreage to FletcherLiving, it moved to a new location and a new identity at Windross Farm, Ardmore. FletcherLiving is in the business of once again transforming the land use of Takaanini’s Grant, this time to residential housing with supporting commercial infrastructure.

The image above shows the Manukau Harbour end of the course overlying a Google map of Waiata Shores. Coffee drinkers in Songbird café could have watched golfers putt out on the first green before heading off to the second tee – by BestStart! The houses on the south-eastern side of Waituarua Drive sit on what was the buffer strip to prevent Conifer Grove houses being pelted by wayward drives from the second tee – and the inevitable friction that would have ensued!

WAIATA SHORES STREET NAMES

The notes below came from Auckland Council, FletcherLiving, and personal contact.

All roads within the Waiata Shores development have their names approved and accepted by Auckland Council. 

The Māori names were chosen in consultation with Te Ākitai Waiohua.   Previously accepted names and proposed names have all come from a workshop held with members of Te Ākitai Waiohua in May 2016.  A number of names were provided by Nigel Denny, Kaitiaki Manager, Te Ākitai Waiohua. The names represent ancestors, settlements and traditional fishing grounds from around the area.

The European street names recognise a mix of early settlers from the immediate area and the early Patrons, President and champion golfers from the old Manukau Golf Club.

All the European names are deceased, and due diligence has been undertaken.

In accordance with the wider development, Māori names are preferred for the roads running North/South, with European names preferred for the East/West roads.

Adlam Lane	Mrs Annie Jean Adlam was the first Women’s President of the Manukau Golf Club (1932- 1934). She was born in the 1880s. The Adlams had three children. They retired to Northland in the 1950s
Clarry Close	Manukau Golf Club member Clarry Halsey, winner of many tournaments over the years. He played his last round in January 2006 and died March 2006.
George Cole Lane	An early settler and “father” of Papakura, George Cole arrived in Auckland from England via Sydney in 1841. He was in Papakura by 1846 and established a mill there.
Gosper Rd	Ernest Gordon Gosper was wounded at Gallipoli and invalided home. He married in 1917, and set up a blacksmith shop on Mahia Road in 1923.
Kawe Marie Lane	Kawe Marie Lane was named for Kawe Marie, the daughter of Ihaka’s brother, therefore his niece and a cousin of Te Wirihana.
Lady McKenzie Mews	Lady Doris McKenzie and her husband, Sir Clutha McKenzie, purchased a 70-acre farm called Wharemoto in Manurewa in 1927. Lady McKenzie was an active member in the community, raising funds for the Manurewa Plunket Rooms. The McKenzies travelled the world with UNESCO. When they retired in 1958 they moved back to the farm.
Nganui Avenue	Nganui Avenue is named for a Te Ākitai Waiohua coastal settlement in the Puukaki area, west of the defended settlement, Waituarua.
Nields Close	Percy Nields set up the first blacksmiths on Great South Road in 1914 after working in the Bay of Islands. Married Florence Keat in 1905.
Noel Hayden Street	Noel Hayden was Manukau Golf Club’s first full time professional. He coached juniors and was secretary and president of the NZPGA (Professional Golfers’ Association of New Zealand). There is a Pro Am in his memory called the Noel Hayden Memorial Pro Am. (A Pro Am is an event that involves professionals and amateurs)
Orford Lane	Emily Gladys Walpole, the second wife of the Earl of Orford, who died at Manurewa House in 1931 (early settlers). The Earl purchased a property in Hillpark in 1928 hoping that the NZ climate would be better for his health. Orford Lodge, Earls Court, and Orford Park are Manurewa place names recalling his influence.
Orona Place	Named for the smallest of the three islands in the Manukau off the Karaka foreshore. The islands can be seen from the motorway.
Paraone Crescent	Paraone Crescent was named for a Te Ākitai Waiohua kaumatua from Puukaki Marae.
Pepene Avenue	Pepene Avenue is named for Ihaka’s father, Pepene Te Tihi. In 1863, Pepene died in military confinement at Otahuhu and was reportedly buried in Conifer Grove near the motorway. Incidentally, neither Pepene nor Ihaka were charged with any offence nor given any hearing.
Periko Way	Periko Way is named for Periko Manutapuwaenui Wirihana Takaanini, a younger brother of Te Napi.
Pohorama Lane	Pohorama Lane is named for another of Ihaka’s children.
Riria Crescent	Riria Ratauhinga was the wife of Ihaka Takaanini. She and one of her sons, Te Wirihana Takaanini,  survived the 1863  incarceration at the Ōtāhuhu military camp. Riria and Te Wirihana, were left to pick up the remnants of Te Ākitai Waiohua. This is why the vast majority of tribal members today are descended from the surviving son, Te Wirihana Takaanini.
Te Awapu	The name of a Te Ākitai Waiohua settlement or headland on Tironui Peninsula (Longford Estate).  Te Awapu is shown on the Crown Grant map of 1863.
Te Mura Crescent	Te Mura, meaning “be alight”, was the old name for the south-eastern Waimāhia (Weymouth) area and referred to the number of fires that were visible as the people from Takirangaranga cooked their seafood.
Te Napi Drive	Named for Te Napi Wirihana Takaanini, son of Te Wirihana Takaanini, and grandson of Ihaka Takaanini, from whom the suburb Takanini takes its name. Te Napi died in 1929 and is buried in the urupā near the Puukaki marae.
Waituarua Drive	Named for a defended settlement to the east of Nganui, near Puukaki.

For further detail and understanding of the mana of Te Ākitai Waiohua in the area, go to: https://www.teakitai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=139