During the protracted Mahurangi Block transactions, Ngai Tai continued to live in the Te Onewa area, though the largest Maori settlement in the Northcote-Devonport area was now around North Head, near where the Devonport Golf Club now is.
On 9 July 1863, Maori living in the Auckland region were obliged to swear allegiance to Queen Victoria or move to the Waikato, and a curfew was placed on Maori vessels on the Waitemata and Manukau harbours after dark. As a result, many left the region. Here, two Maori women look down on Stokes Point and Little Shoal Bay from a campsite at Birkenhead.
John Tremenhere Johnston. View across Waitemata Harbour from the North Shore. 1864 or 65. Watercolour.
ATLC-126-003. Alexander Turnbull Library.