An attempt to set aside land purchase contracts in New Zealand. Ownership of Maori land had been steadily proceeding through purchases from individual Maori, not tribal communities, ignoring the guarantees of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). In 1873 Henare Matua, a Maori chief, appealed to the Hawkes Bay Native Lands Alienation Commission to repudiate land purchase contracts drawn up in the Hawkes Bay area. He received some support from settler-politicians anxious to embarrass the large landed interests. The movement met with little success in overturning contracts, but it did contribute to the growing separatist movement among Maoris, the Kotahitanga.