In the mid-1880s, Te Rohe Pōtae Māori negotiated with the Crown to open their district to the North Island's main trunk railway, a move which would bring the region's longstanding isolation from Pākehā to an end. The Crown did not uphold its promises and between 1890 and 1905 Māori lost ownership of more than 250,000 hectares of land or, comparatively, a third of the district. The Crown ignored the assurances it gave them back then and that was the catalyst for the situation that King Country Māori find themselves in today.