Maungatautari Peeke haki (bank cheque)

This haki (cheque) is significant because it was generated by a Māori-owned bank established in the wake of the Waikato Wars and after decades of debt used by the colonial regime as a means of dispossessing Māori of their lands. It shows how Māori adopted and subverted a financial institution as a political tool to resist financial colonisation.

King Tāwhiao (Tūkāroto Matutaera Pōtatau Te Wherowhero Tāwhiao, ?-1894, Ngāti Mahuta) and the Kīngitanga established Te Peeke o Aotearoa in about 1885 partly to protect sums of money acquired through land sales. It was the first and only bank created by Māori for Māori (Comyn 2023, 82). The Waikato Times reported that the bank was ‘in full swing and prospering’ in Maungatautari in 1885 (12 Dec, p 2).

Maungatautari Peeke (bank) and Te Peeke o Aotearoa are either the same institution or branches of the same institution (cheques issued under each name are identical apart from the name of the bank). The bank provided functions including deposits, chequing, note issue and lending. As Maungatautari Peeke didn’t issue its own currency, haki (cheques) were useful for transferring funds between customers. The bank appears to have lasted about 20 years from 1885-1905 (Comyn 2023, 73).

The Native Lands Acts of 1862 and 1865 were a key driver of the colonial regime’s system of financial colonisation of Māori through the individualisation of Māori land tenure. Thousands of acres of Māori land were alienated as Māori became entrapped by cycles of debt dependency. For example, any member of an iwi could apply for investigation of title, and anyone with interests in the land in question had to attend court at the appointed time. Entire communities might have to attend court hearings, sometimes many miles from home, and hearings could last several months. Costs quickly mounted up: accommodation, transport and food; survey costs, lawyer’s fees, and interpreters; and lost income while away from home. Land was often sold to discharge resulting debts. These debt relations ‘crippled Māori economically, wresting the base from them piece by piece, repayment by repayment’ (Comyn 2023, 76).

So, it is understandable that after decades of financial colonisation, some Māori wanted to develop their own financial institutions. By conducting financial transactions with Te Peeke, making deposits and drawing loans that excluded predatory Pākehā lenders, Māori could operate outside of colonial rule.

Te Peeke o Aotearoa was a way of centralising iwi wealth and pooling resources. ‘The formation of the bank was a political decision that aimed to regain financial independence for Māori by establishing credit systems … outside the financial-legal infrastructure of the colonizer’ (Comyn 2023, 85). It was a powerful assertion of rangatiratanga and self-determination.

Te Peeke o Aotearoa was also a storehouse for the Kīngitanga treasury and supported the development of Te Kauhanganui, the Kīngitanga parliament established by Tāwhiao in in 1891. Financial autonomy was essential in restoring the self-determination of Māori in social and political life.

References:

Comyn, C. (2023). Te Peeke o Aotearoa: colonial and decolonial finance in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1860s-1890s. In: Paul Robert Gilbert, Clea Bourne (eds.). The entangled legacies of empire Race, finance and inequality. Manchester University Press: Manchester, pp 73-88.