In June 1853, under the instruction of the Crown, the tribe signed the Castlepoint deed. The Crown agreed that a fund would be created for Ngāti Kahungunu from the onsale of lands, but this never happened. The Crown purchased over 1.5 million acres and did not fulfil its obligations to the deed. From 1866 to 1873, the Native Land Court assimilated the land into European culture by distributing individual titles and thus blocking thousands of sub-tribes from their own land. Today, 80 percent of the land from Castlepoint is in the Mātaikona reserve. The Government has locked up that land block, its spiritual and physical significance, and its sacred nature, in the Mātaikona reserve. That is the underhanded work of the Governor. This is a landless tribe. The little land that is left to them has been mistreated and polluted by the contaminants from the petrol companies, and that goes on to this very day.