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Story: Urban Māori

Māori land loss, 1850

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Māori land loss, 1850

Loss of ancestral land was one of the reasons Māori moved from rural to urban areas in the 20th century. This map, prepared for the unpublished centennial atlas in the 1940s, shows in red the areas of land that Māori had lost by 1850. At this stage most rural land was still in Māori ownership.

Using this item

Alexander Turnbull Library, Centennial Historical Atlas Collection

Reference: MapColl-CHA-6/2/6-Acc.38315

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Paul Meredith, Urban Māori – Urbanisation, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/map/4225/maori-land-loss-1850 (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Paul Meredith, published 4 March 2009, updated 17 February 2015.