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As old Father Thames is to the Londoner
As the Ganges is sacred to the Indian
As the Jordan is spiritual to the Palestines
So is the Mohaka all these things to Ngati Pahauwera
—Ramon Joe

The Mohaka River Report 1992 was the first report concerning Ngati Kahungunu and the East Coast. It was also one of the first of the Waitangi Tribunal’s ‘rivers reports’. The claim concerned the tino rangatiratanga of Ngāti Pahauwera over the Mohaka River and was brought by the late Ariel Aranui, for himself and on behalf of Ngāti Pahauwera, in January 1990. The claimants said that their tino rangatiratanga over the river, as confirmed and guaranteed in article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi, had never been relinquished.

The word rangatiratanga is one which Ngati Pahauwera favours. That is the mana, the essential force, that they speak of in respect of their river. That is the spirit of them all and the power, essential force and awe. Their rangatiratanga is the Mohaka River.
—Charlie King

Rangatiratanga of a river as a ‘spiritual, subsistence’ and economic base can be a tremendous heritage and resource. This would have continued for Ngati Pahauwera if the Treaty and its promises had been honoured. However … Government neglect of Maori Sovereignty in terms of Article 2 occurred.

If our rangatiratanga over the river is recognised … we will be able to sustain our life and begin to rebuild a corporate resource base and offer real hope for the development of Ngati Pahauwera people today and for future generations.
—Tureti Moxon

The river claim formed part of a wider claim relating to tribal lands in Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa. In November 1991, it was severed from that wider claim and accorded urgency by the Tribunal at the request of the claimants because the Planning Tribunal had recommended to the Minister for the Environment that a national water conservation order be placed over the river. The claimants alleged that the making of such an order without their consent would usurp their rangatiratanga and be a breach of the principles of the Treaty.

We always talk about our river, the control of it, and its spirituality. These are the waters of sustenance.

Even though administration of the river and the land has passed into pakeha hands, we retain the control. It is in these treasures (ie the land and the river) that rests the mana. This is what we are fighting for. We know that this is where our salvation is. The control of the river has been our mana from way back. It came from our ancestors and down through the generations.
—Canon Huata

Ngāti Pahauwera’s claim related to the lower reaches of the Mohaka, and they claimed that the river, including its waters, bed, and fisheries, was a taonga of theirs. In particular, they placed great emphasis on the role that the river played in their tribal identity.

The river is a taonga that we as kaitiaki know we have to preserve. Our ancestors taught us to respect the river and if we respected the river, the river looked after us. If the river is desecrated, it will affect the very deep beliefs we have about the river. That is our Taniwha, the life force of the river, our respect for the river.
—Derek Huata

Ngati Pahauwera is at the beginning of the river, at the river mouth here and out to sea. To us, those who stand on the marae, that is the spirit which is upon us. Our sacred mountain, the river of Mohaka, Ngati Pahauwera are the people.

The spirituality of the river, the mana, the sacredness and the authority relates to Ngati Pahauwera solely. The life of the river we do not want interfered with, lest it be lost. It must be left to flow onward, in the way that it did in the days of the elders. If they were here they would be at the river as it flows onward.
—Charlie King

The Mohaka River Tribunal comprised Bill Wilson (presiding), Bishop Manuhuia Bennett, Mary Boyd, Dr Ngapare Hopa, and Georgina Te Heuheu, and hearings were held in Wellington, Mohaka, and Napier between April and June of 1992. There, the claimants argued that the Crown, through legislation (in particular, the Water and Soil Conservation Act 1967), had failed to recognise and give effect to their rangatiratanga over the Mohaka River. They claimed that this legislation was inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty because it failed to recognise tribal authority and to provide appropriate mechanisms for its exercise. The claimants sought a finding that the relevant statutes failed to provide for rangatiratanga, in breach of the Crown’s Treaty obligations, and that new forms of authority for regulating the use of waters and other natural resources should be devised.

The Tribunal released its report in November 1992. In it, the Tribunal found that the Crown’s obligation to protect Māori property to the fullest extent reasonably practicable was crucial to the claim and that, far from doing this, the Crown had actively undermined that interest by promoting legislation and adopting practices which had given little or no recognition to the position of Ngāti Pahauwera. The Tribunal reached the conclusion that the Mohaka River was a taonga of Ngāti Pahauwera when the Treaty was signed and still remained so. Ngāti Pahauwera did not relinquish te tino rangatiratanga over the river, or transfer ownership of its bed or waters. All statutory provisions which assumed that the Crown owned the riverbed and waters, or which conferred exclusive control over the waters on central or local government, were in breach of the Treaty.

We urge Ngati Pahauwera and the Crown, as treaty partners, to enter negotiations as soon as possible as to our recommendations. We are confident that the outcome of such discussions will be an agreement which recognises the legitimate interests in the river of both Ngati Pahauwera and the other citizens of this country and which demonstrates the Treaty of Waitangi can be made to work in a sensible and realistic way in its application to a beautiful river which is both an undoubted taonga of Ngati Pahauwera and a great asset to the country as a whole.
—The Waitangi Tribunal

In reaching its findings, the Tribunal had traversed the issue of the ad medium filum aquae rule, a common-law presumption that would also be argued in other river claims. Ad medium filum aquae holds that the ownership of land adjoining a non-tidal river also includes the ownership of the bed of the river to its mid point. Thus, if the bank of the river is sold, that portion of the riverbed is also sold. The Tribunal distinguished the present claim from the 1962 Court of Appeal decision in Re the Bed of the Whanganui River, and found that the presumption did not apply in this case because the parties to the sale deed would not have intended that the purchase of the land would carry with it the ownership of the adjacent half of the Mohaka riverbed:

In any event the Crown was not entitled to rely on the ad medium filum aquae rule, an English common law presumption which would have been known to few if any settlers in this country in 1851. To rely on such an esoteric rule to acquire a taonga of Ngati Pahauwera without their knowledge would we think have been clearly unjust and in breach of article 2 of the Treaty.