THE PUKEMOREMORE AND KAROKARO BLOCKS

The southern part of the Tauwhare district was part of the Tamahere Native Reserve, shown on an 1867 map of "Waste Lands Open for Sale at Auckland". The price of first class land was fifteen shillings per acre, second class ten shillings, third class and swamps five shillings. The Karokaro block was east of the Confiscation Line and therefore not part of the confiscated territory, but the Pukemoremore block was a part.
The Tamahere Native Reserve, of 26,790 acres was part of the land confiscated by the Crown at the end of the war in 1864. As its name suggests, it was a reserve made available for those "loyal or ex- rebel" Ngati Haua who applied for grants under Section 4 of The Confiscated Lands Act 1867. Te Raihi and his people who lived around Tamahere and had been neutral during the war, were allocated a sub-division of 14,910 acres at the western end. Tioriori and Hura were granted 500 acres, and 11,380 acres was another sub-division for Wiremu Tamehana and his people, some of whom had opposed the Government during the war. In the New Zealand Gazette, October 1879, appears a list of land returned to Ngatihaua, amounting to 2,984 acres. This was at the Tauwhare end, and would include the Pukemoremore Block of 950 acres, as well as scattered smaller areas still in Maori ownership.
The whole reserve began at Pukemoremore and extended along the Confiscation Line northwards to meet the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Grant of 1876. The reserve extended across to the militia settlements east of Hamilton and down to the Waikato River. The southern boundary was the militia settlements round Cambridge.
In the Waikato Times of the 11th September 1883 there was a report that "the Government lands at Tauwhare and Tamahere (Matangi) about which a good deal had been heard of late concerning native claims, would shortly be offered for sale. Mr F. H. Edgecombe, Government Surveyor had sub-divided about 2,000 acres into sections of 200 to 300 acres each, and as the land was of good quality, it would no doubt be speedily settled". This was part of the reserve, and the survey followed an earlier warning by the Hon. John Bryce, Native Minister at the time, that if would-be claimants did not act quickly, the land not already granted would be sold. The area involved the Pukemoremore block already mentioned, and included all the land on both sides of Victoria and Ringers Roads from Beer Road in the south to the Tauwhare-Hamilton Road in the north.
The rates list of Tamahere Riding 1890 shows that the Colonial Treasurer paid rates on 1,499 1/2 acres of Crown Land (a remarkably accurate estimate for those days). The valuation was One thousand and seventy five pounds or thirteen shillings and fourpence per acre and rates paid were Two pounds four shillings and nine and a half pence. For 2,518 acres of Native land, a rate of Six pounds eighteen shillings and four and a half pence was paid by the Colonial Treasurer on a valuation of Three thousand three hundred and twenty one pounds or One pound six shillings and sixpence per acre. The rate struck for that year was a halfpenny in the pound.
Prior to 1940, some attempts to develop 346 acres of the Pukemoremore block had been made, but lack of finance and insecurity of tenure were unsatisfactory to those trying to farm the area. They were there by the grace of the owners. The remaining 600 acres were a waste of fern and ti-tree. Problems of development were made worse by the fact that the land had been granted to the Ngatihaua as a tribe, every member of which was deemed to be a co-owner. A consensus regarding future development had proved impossible to achieve until, after three meetings of owners, it was agreed to rest the individual claims of the owners in the Maori Affairs Department as trustee, the department to administer the block. Prominent in these moves was Mr Philip Te Kata, father of Mrs Mary Hapi.
The advent of the first Labour Government, with its Maori Land Development Scheme, led to progress in developing the block from scrub to grassland. Mr M. R. Findlay was Supervisor for the Maori Affairs Department in Hamilton at the time, and he persuaded the Board of Maori Affairs in Wellington to approve plans for development. Under the direction of Mr Ralph Ranstead, a well-known local farmer, assisted by Mr Norman Palmer, the Public Works Department began work on the block, digging a drain to link with one dug through lower-lying country by Mr W. S. Goosman in the 1920's.
Where possible, the Department employed the owners as labour, paying current rates. The property was then run as a fattening unit, grazing sheep and cattle. Replacement Romney ewes were brought from other Department blocks. By 1945 the nett profit, after paying interest, wages and working expenses was Eight hundred and seventy five pounds. In 1950 nett profit was One thousand five hundred and forty pounds.
In 1950 the developed land was sub-divided into seven units of approximately 90 acres each. A meeting was called, and attended by 50 owners plus the Selection Committee of six (four departmental representatives and two from the tribal owners). They checked on the farming qualifications of would-be farmers. After a probationary period, those successful were to be granted leasehold titles. Houses, cowsheds and storage sheds were built. The sheep and run cattle were sold, and replaced with dairy heifers. In 1951 the Pukemoremore Block began dairying.
The Ngatihaua School was built by Speight, Pearce, Nichol and Davies Ltd., of Cambridge, and at its opening in 1955 had a roll of 85. This eased pressure on ccommodation at Tauwhare, Goodwood and Matangi Schools. Over 200 people attended the official opening of the School, where a special welcome was extended to all, especially to the first Headmaster, Mr James Fleming and Mrs Fleming, who had come from Te Ahuahu Maori School near Kaikohe. Mr P. Te Kata was Chairman of the School Committee and continued as such until his death in 1964.
Across the Confiscation Line, Karokaro A continued to be developed by the principal owners Mr Te Kata, and Mr Muna Karaka.  In 1963 Mr J. Sharland whose property adjoined Karokaro A on the south, obtained a lease, and cleared and grassed a steep sunny valley facing north, at the back of the block. The writer, who was the only pakeha on the road when he arrived in December 1951, developed 353 acres of Karokaro B and C from scrub to grass, and sold it to Mr B. Pollock in 1981.