Here are some pointers to useful resources for researching land claims in the Library and other organisations.
Researching land claims can take a lot of time, particularly if you are moving between organisations, so you may need to do a bit of investigating first and find out who holds what information. You can do this by checking out websites and contacting the organisations.
Useful resources in the National Library
The Māori Land Court Minute Books Index is a particularly useful resource for land research. It is available as a computer database, which our staff can help you to use.
Access to the Māori Land Court Minute Books Index is available in the ground floor reference area of the Library, and in the Manuscripts section on the first floor. Copies of the original Minute Books in microfilm are held at Archives New Zealand.
Maori Land Courts Minute Books – Archives New Zealand website
Other resources that are useful for land research include:
- Government publications (such as the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives and the New Zealand Gazette)
- Raupatu Document Bank including indexes and a guide by John Laurie (1994) in the Māori Reference Collection
- TAPUHI database, accessible online and in the Library
- Alexander Turnbull Library Cartographic Collection, which holds boundary maps complete with their Māori land block names from the 1880s onwards and land ownership and boundaries maps.
Publications that may be of interest are the Crown Forestry Rental Trust Land Legislation Manual, 1994, and other guides to land legislation and claims. These are all available in the Māori Reference Collection area on the ground floor.
More about Māori resources in the collections
More about the Māori Reference Collection
More about government publications in the collections
More about the Cartographic Collection
New Zealand Gazette online (2000 onwards) – Department of Internal Affairs website
Other institutions
Other institutions and organisations that hold material important for Māori land research include Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), Archives New Zealand, and local and district councils.
Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website
List of local and district councils – Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) website
