As noted in the landscape assessment, the Hutt Water Collection Area
consists of hilly and isolated land lying in the southern reaches of the
Tararua Ranges. As such there is comparatively little evidence regarding
the use of the land by Maori or Europeans. Considering the position of
the Block, the land tenure situation with the block is uncertain. The Block
lay outside of the area of land claimed by the New Zealand Company
after 1840. Research has not yet indicated how the land passed from
Maori to Crown ownership. It is unlikely to have been included in the
Wairarapa series of purchases of the 1850s and may instead have
been part of sales that took place along the Kapiti Coast before 1860.
The exact process of what became of the land after it became Crown
land has not been fully researched but it appears that at some time part
of the land passed into private hands whilst part remained Crown land