1891 Investigation of Māori land

A Royal Commission investigated the state of the laws controlling the administration of Māori land. It found that the situation could hardly have been more unworkable had governments over the years deliberately tried to make it so. Fragmentation of ownership and the complex and contradictory nature of the laws meant that almost nothing could be done. By now, only 50 years after the Treaty's signing, Māori had virtually no land in the South Island and less than 40 percent of the North Island. What they did still have was largely of poor quality and hard to develop, the areas that the settlers had not wanted. The Commission made many recommendations to improve the situation, but few were implemented, largely because they were inconsistent with government policy.