part of the land used for military settlements was at Whakatane, on the land of the most innocent. The tribunal concluded: "We do not think it is at all established that there was a war in the usual sense. More particularly, we consider that there was no rebellion ... the confiscation was clearly contrary to the Treaty of Waitangi." Settlement of confiscated lands Regulations of May 1851, and subsequent amendments by provinces, set levels of payments and land allocations, according to military rank and varying slightly from one province to another. Soon after the passing of the Settlements Act in 1863, agents were employed to enlist men for military service in Taranaki from among the gold miners of Otago and Melbourne. Between 30 December 1863 and 17 February 1864 four ships arrived in New Plymouth carrying 489 volunteers. In Taranaki were laid out as military settlements with the hope that when men were released from military duty they would remain on their allotments and become permanent settlers. By 1866, when their three years of service was over, many had left Taranaki already, while most of those who did complete their service opted then to sell, leaving no more than 10 per cent of the military settlers on the land. Of the 11 towns laid out north of the Waingongoro River, most had no houses on them, while the most populous, including Normanby, Hawera and Carlyle (Patea), rarely had more than a dozen. The main reason was the inability of the provincial government to provide work for the men, or to build roads and bridges linking the settlements. Throughout New Zealand the government had confiscated areas clearly unsuitable for settlement: in Taranaki, they had taken the whole of Mt Taranaki, while in the Bay of Plenty they had confiscated Mt Putauaki, the whole of the Rangitaiki Swamp and other areas of thick bush. Military settlers ultimately took less than 1 per cent of land confiscated from Ngati Awa. In Taranaki, Māori, often with the tacit consent of the government, later began returning to the lands that had been taken from them. When parts of those lands were subsequently wanted for settlement, compensation payments were made to Māori users – in government eyes, a bribe to keep the peace rather than a purchase price – and deeds of cession were signed, transferring title to Europeans. In 1880 spiritual leader Te Whiti o