"Pre-emption" is a term that appears in Article 2 of the official English text of the Treaty of Waitangi and refers to the treaty arrangement in which chiefs granted to the Queen the exclusive rights of purchasing any land the Maori owners wished to sell.

Opposition to this government monopoly on land purchases and sales came from the New Zealand Company, whose business was handicapped by the arrangement.

Opposition also came from Maori landowners, accustomed to doing as they pleased with land they owned, who saw the government making substantial profits as a land-trading monopoly by on-selling land.

Governor Robert FitzRoy waived this government monopoly on two occasions. This is called the pre-emption waiver.

Under the first waiver, in March 1844, about 600 acres changed hands. The second waiver, in October 1844, involved about 100,000 acres.

The first waiver had a condition that settlers could buy land direct from Maori on the condition that a fee of 10 shillings an acre be paid to the government. That fee was reduced to one penny an acre in the second waiver.

Such waivers did not continue because direct sales with minimal earnings for the government destroyed the economic purpose of the government monopoly on land transactions -- which was to fund the government.

Source: The Treaty of Waitangi, Claudia Orange, Bridget Williams Books. P104