On November 30, 1838, 80 per cent of the 1333 acres of the two hapu’s traditional lands, later known as the CMS Te Papa Block, was transferred to the Church Missionary Society.
After the battle of Gate Pa, the Battle of Te Ranga and the Bush campaign, the Crown put pressure on the church to sell the land to the Crown for European settlement.
Archdeacons Brown and Henry Williams protested several times, but in the end, Brown caved in.
In 1867 the Church Mission Society Central Lands Board resold 423 hectares of the land to the government without seeking hapu agreement.
Back in May at a meeting in New Plymouth, the Anglican Church General Synod apologised to about 10 hapu members and also agreed to come to Tauranga to make a formal public apology to the leaders of the two Tauranga Moana hapu.
Anglican Archbishop of Waiapu Andrew Hedge described the church’s failure as a “basic moral error” and said the apology was made with an “overwhelming sense of grief”.