 Gipps introduced his New Zealand Land Claims Bill to the New South Wales Legislative Council in May 1840, instituting a process to appoint commissioners who would investigate all lands acquired from Māori and the conditions under which the transactions had taken place.The Bill also stipulated that Māori owned only the land which they "occupied", by living on or cultivating it; all other land was deemed "waste" land and owned by the Crown.The subsequent Act, passed on 4 August, prohibited the grant of any land purchase greater than four square miles (2560 acres).