 By 1867 he had sold a large block at Wahaparata (near the present day site of Havelock North) and had leased over 17,000 acres of land in the Heretaunga Plains to Thomas Tanner for an initial annual sum of £600.Regardless of his alarm over the rapidity of Māori land loss in Hawke's Bay, Tomoana was loyal to The Crown.In 1866, he and other Māori leaders joined forces with the Hawke's Bay Division of the Colonial Defence Force, to repel an attack by the Pai Mārire at the Battle of Omarunui.