In 1865 the justice minister at the time Henry Sewell said the aim of the act was "the detribalisation of the Māori – to destroy, if it were possible, the principle of communism upon which their social system is based and which stands as a barrier in the way of all attempts to amalgamate the Māori race into our social and political system."A change to the Native Land Act in 1873 removed the ability for a hapū or iwi to be named as an owner of land.
