The New Zealand Company founded Nelson, increasing pressure to secure large blocks of nearby land for settlers—pressure that soon focused on Wairau in present-day Marlborough.
New Zealand Company surveyors attempting to work in the Wairau Valley were confronted by local Māori, who opposed the survey of land they said had not been properly sold; tools were damaged but the surveyors were not harmed.
Ngāti Toa leaders, including Te Rauparaha, wrote to Commissioner William Spain seeking a formal decision on the disputed Wairau claim, emphasizing adjudication rather than armed confrontation.
After Spain did not arrive to decide the dispute, Ngāti Toa returned to Wairau and destroyed survey materials and burned rough huts associated with the survey; the surveyors were sent back to Nelson unharmed.
Police Magistrate Henry A. Thompson issued warrants for Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata for arson, and Captain Arthur Wakefield led an armed party of settlers from Nelson to Wairau to attempt the arrests.
At Tuamarina, a confrontation escalated; a stray shot killed Te Rongo (Te Rangihaeata’s wife), gunfire followed, and the settlers retreated. Wakefield surrendered, but he and others were killed in an ensuing utu retaliation. In total, 22 settlers and at least four Māori died.
With settler calls for revenge escalating after the June 1843 killings, Governor Robert FitzRoy came to Wellington to investigate, aiming to reduce the risk of wider conflict.
FitzRoy concluded that Ngāti Toa had been provoked by Europeans’ unreasonable actions in trying to enforce arrests while the underlying land title remained disputed—an outcome that infuriated many settlers and the Company.
William Spain’s land-claims hearings for the Nelson area began in August 1844 (delayed by the affray). Wakefield offered additional compensation and the Company moved away from pressing its Wairau Valley claim during the proceedings.
After challenges to the adequacy of earlier purchases, the Company agreed to pay further compensation (commonly reported as £800) and deeds of release were signed soon after, with explicit exclusions for key Māori places such as pā and burial grounds.
During the Wellington conflicts of the mid-1840s, Governor George Grey ordered Te Rauparaha’s arrest at dawn, removing a central Ngāti Toa leader from active political life; the detention is widely described as lacking proper legal process.
As the Crown moved to acquire remaining Māori land in Te Tau Ihu, it purchased the Wairau district in 1847 from three North Island chiefs—later criticized in Treaty settlement materials for failing to identify and include all right-holders (including Rangitāne).
Wairau Affray and Marlborough land disputes (1843–1848)
