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28 October 1842 David George Smale purchases a 320-acre plot in the southern part of the Clendon grant. (Smale could perhaps be regarded as the first European settler in Manurewa).

3 January 1843 Bishop George Augustus Selwyn pays a visit to James Hamlin at the Orua Bay mission station.

24 July 1843 Joseph Hargreaves acquires an allotment of 83 acres on the east bank of the Tamaki, in the locality known today as Farm Cove. Land had first been offered for sale in the area on 30 December 1842, but as far as is known Hargreaves is the first European to actually live there. He later adds to his holdings, and builds a house he calls 'Butley', known to some as 'Butley Manor' (it is demolished in 1972).

27 September 1843 Edward Waters buys a portion of the Clendon Grant (see 18 October 1842). Waters' land is immediately to the north of the present-day Manukau City Centre. On 15 December 1846 he applies for a depasturing license, and later adds significantly to his freehold estate. (The exact date he settles on his property is unknown, but his presence on jury lists suggest that he is living there by February 1849.)

17 December 1843 The Crown purchases a large block of land offered for sale by Ngati Te Ata, stretching from Karaka through Pukekohe as far south as the Waikato River ('Pukekohe No. 1'). The Karaka portion is surveyed and subdivided soon afterwards. Ngati Haua, Ngati Tamaoho and Ngati Mahanga dispute Ngati Te Ata's right to sell parts of the block

18 December 1843 Crown land is first offered for sale in the 'Parish of Maraetai'. The first settlers in the localities which become known as Maungamangaroa (Mangemangeroa) and Turanga (Whitford) are George and William Trice and Isaac Wade. The Trices build a house on what is known today as Clifton Point.

29 February 1844 The Crown purchases the 35,000-acre Ramarama block (between Papakura and Mangatawhiri) from Ngati Tamaoho. A further payment is made on 10 June 1846. Other tribes dispute the sale, with their claims being settled in 1852.

26 March 1844 The Crown waives the right of pre-emption and allows settlers to buy land direct from the Maori, on payment of a fee of ten shillings per acre. Sales are few, however, until in October 1844 the fee is reduced to a penny an acre. (On 18 November 1846 the Crown resumes the right of pre-emption.)

25 April 1844 Governor Fitzroy agrees that Fairburn's claim should be extended to a maximum of 5500 acres. Fairburn subsequently selects a total of 5,494 acres in nine different plots situated in (present-day) Otahuhu, Mangere, East Tamaki, Pakuranga and Maraetai

7 June 1844 The Government first advertises for sale 'Country Land' in the Parishes of Papakura and Karaka. Many of the initial purchasers are land speculators. Some settlement begins at 'Papakura' (i.e. Manurewa), but at Karaka the quality of the land is poor, and settlement does not begin until 1851.

26 September 1844 The artist George French Angas records his impressions on a journey south from Auckland. He finds the land almost empty, except for William Fairburn's cattle grazing at Otahuhu, one or two poorly built settlers' huts and the ruins of a water-wheel somewhere north of present-day Manurewa, and a retired sea-captain's hut [David Smale] near the native village of Papakura. He also notes a surveyor's tent pitched to the south of Kirk's Bush.

22 October 1844 The Old Land Claims Commission, having considered the pre-Treaty purchases of the missionary James Hamlin, grants him a total of 3737 acres. This includes an 1100-acre block to the north of Otahuhu, bounded by the Otahuhu portage, Hamlins Hill (Matukuroa) and the Tamaki River and reaching almost as far north as the Panmure basin. Here Hamlin establishes 'Waipuna Farm'; however, his claims are not yet fully settled.