In 1842, Rēkohu and the surrounding islands were annexed to New Zealand as the Chatham Islands. The Crown took no action before the late 1850s to alleviate the conditions of Moriori enslavement. Moriori sent letters and petitions to the Crown detailing their plight, including the names of those killed in the invasion and those who had subsequently died of despair. The court awarded more than 97 percent of the land to the recently arrived Māori and less than 3 percent to Moriori. This has always been a subject of historical contention. 