Chiefs also sold the water, the trees, everything above it, and everything below it. How do I know this?

Deed No. 420 in MAORI DEEDS OF LAND PURCHASES IN THE NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND, by Henry Hanson Turton, that describes the sale and purchase of the Upper Waikato Block between the Waipa and Waikato rivers from Ngaruawahia to Lake Taupo, says:.

The government paid the people of Ngatimahanga, Ngatitamainu and Ngatihourua £1000 on September 15, 1864.

That £1000 in 1864 would be worth $103,835.86 today, according to the Reserve Bank Inflation calculator.

The sale included “trees, minerals, waters, rivers, lakes, streams, and all appertaining to the said land or beneath the surface of the said land”.

These were standard deeds used in all transactions of that time.

It is clear that the chiefs sold the water and everything else with the land.

So much for current assertions that Maori own the water.