The 1898 Dog Tax War as an Incursion on Māori De Recto Sovereignty

Abstract

In the Hokianga region of Northland in 1898, a war nearly broke out between Māori and the Crown, ostensibly over the Crown’s imposition of a tax on dogs. This article explores some of the underlying issues that led to that crisis, focusing particularly on how various forms and dimensions of sovereignty were contested in the post-1840 colonial period in New Zealand. What the so-called ‘Dog Tax War’ exemplified was a trend during that era of encroaching Crown sovereignty into indigenous communities in the colony, coupled with efforts by Māori to resist that process. This work introduces the idea of Māori de recto sovereignty in connection with these incursions of Crown sovereignty, and examines the ensuing dynamics that emerged between different conceptions of sovereignty among Māori and the Crown, set against the backdrop of the trajectory of growing Crown power in the colony.