North Canterbury Purchase This block of land (1,140,000 acres) is between the Waiau-ua River in the north, and the Rakahuri River in the South. The northern boundary of the Canterbury Purchase (the �Kemp Purchase�) had been arbitrarily set by Kemp at the Rakahuri River just north of Ngai Tahu�s stronghold of Kaiapoi. The Crown believed that land north of the pa was owned by Ngati Toa, and had �bought� it from that tribe. In fact, Ngai Tahu strongly asserted from the outset that it belonged to Ngai Tahu. After years of petitions and government investigations, the Crown agreed that Ngai Tahu were the rightful owners, and instructed W. Hamilton to negotiate with Ngai Tahu for settlement. Ngai Tahu sought Reserves so that they could take up sheep farming, however they were told that it wasn�t possible because they had ample Reserves in Banks Peninsular and in the Kemp block. The real reason however, as W. Hamilton explained to Government Officials, was that there was no land available because it had all been sold to Europeans. Ngai Tahu had to settle for �500 for the 1.2 million acres and no Reserves, despite the fact that only two years earlier, the Government had sold 30,000 acres within the block to Europeans for �15,000 |