Governor to withhold his permission to any confiscation if he was not satisfied it was "just and moderate". Cardwell offered his own warning of the possible consequences of excessive confiscation: "The original power, the Maori, (would) be driven back to the forest and morass (and) the sense of injustice, combined with the pressure of want, would convert the native population into a desperate banditti, taking refuge in the solitudes of the interior from the pursuit of the police or military, and descending, when opportunity might occur, into the cultivated plain to destroy the peaceful fruits of industry." Despite his reservations, Cardwell opted not to disallow the act and later passed on an opinion of Crown law officers that it was not repugnant to the laws of England. Confiscations begin Taranaki More than a year passed before Grey, who appeared to be involved in a power struggle with government ministers, issued his first proclamation to confiscate land. Within that time, however, Parliament also passed the Public Works Act 1864. which allowed Māori land to be taken for public works – initially, a road between Wanganui and New Plymouth. (In 1865 the Outlying Districts Police Act also came into force, enabling more land to be forfeited when chiefs failed to surrender fugitives). On 30 January 1865, Grey issued a proclamation to seize the middle Taranaki district, between the Waitara River and the Waimate Stream. Separate proclamations identified Waitara South and Oakura as confiscated districts. On 2 September he issued further proclamations, embracing the Ngati Awa and Ngati Ruanui districts, effectively seizing all of Taranaki from Parinihi to Wanganui and beyond Mt Taranaki in the interior. The same day Grey announced that "the war which commenced at Oakura is at an end", that "sufficient punishment" had been inflicted and that no more land would be confiscated. In fact no Taranaki land remained unconfiscated. Despite the announcement of peace, hostilities continued in the Taranaki War, as Major-General Trevor Chute stepped up his aggressive campaign of storming pā throughout South Taranaki. Confiscations in Taranaki left many hapu with nothing of their own to live on, forcing them to become squatters on Crown land and driving them to unaccustomed levels of desperation. Waikato Although fighting in Waikato had finished by mid-1864, the following year Grey confiscated more than 480,000 hectares of land from the Waikato-Tainui iwi (tribe) in the Waikato as punishment for their earlier rebellion.