area of Auckland attacking Mokoia Pā at Panmure. By the 1830s many of the local Māori had been killed or enslaved by their deadly enemies to the north. In 1926 Geoff Fairfield, the great-grandson of Alfred Buckland and a keen historian, drew a detailed scaled map of the pā. The main isthmus of Auckland was also depopulated by Māori migrating south to avoid the regular carnage. The Tamaki River, to the west of Bucklands Beach, became a main highway for attacking Taua or those seeking revenge (utu) from previous attacks. In 1835 minor conflict had occurred in the area and threatened to erupt into full-scale war. William Thomas Fairburn, the CMS missionary, attempted to solve the issues for nearly a year. With the agreement of local Māori at a meeting at Puneke on the Tamaki River on 22 January 1836, he purchased the entire Bucklands Beach, Howick and Pakuranga area of . The price paid to 3 local chiefs was 10 blankets, 24 axes, 26 hoes, 14 spades, $80, of tobacco, 24 cobs and 12 plane irons. The value of the goods was about 907 pounds and 17 shillings and 6 pence. The 3 hapu who sold the land were Ngatitawaki, Urikaraka and Matekiwaho. The principal chiefs who signed the sale were Herua, Te Waru, Hauauru and Te Tara. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed at Karaka Bay on the Tamaki River opposite Big Bucklands Beach in 1840 by Capt Hobson and Ngati Paoa. After the treaty signing the Fairburn purchase was examined by the government, who determined that Fairburn could keep 1/7 of the land, with the rest being claimed by the government, who later sold it on in smaller blocks. Europeans The first European to farm this area was Fairburn, New Zealand's first architect. He sold to William Mason in 1851 for 500 pounds, but the deed for the land was not processed until 6 September 1852. The land included most of the peninsula apart from what is now Musick Point, which was reserved for the crown. Originally Eastern Beach was named Masons Beach. He sowed fine English grasses and grazed mainly sheep. In 1850 William Mason was elected one of the three wardens of the Howick "hundred". The "hundred" was an ancient English administrative unit. He was one of three wardens who decided how the income gained for licenses to grazing cattle would be spent. The term