Clause 7(iv) names Te Rata Mahuta as representative of Māori living in the North Island south of Auckland. It does not say “the Māori King shall be a trustee”. That drafting matters because the legal constituency is geographic even though the first holder was the Māori monarch.
The politics behind the position were contested. Eruera Tirikātene's Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry records that Āpirana Ngata opposed Tirikātene's appointment to the Waitangi National Trust Board and promoted the Māori King instead. In the House on 9 December 1932, Labour leader Harry Holland proposed representation for South Island Māori through the Southern Māori MP; Tirikātene supported that argument. Ngata responded that tribes south of Auckland had accepted the Bledisloes' decision to have one representative and stressed Ngāpuhi's first claim to representation at Waitangi.
That debate shows selection and constituency were live political questions. It does not show an automatic constitutional succession rule.
Correction — instrument date: the statutory Trust Deed reproduced in Schedule 1 of the 1932 Act states that it was executed on 18 November 1932. The National Library catalogue independently dates its manuscript Declaration of Trust to 18 November 1932. A 1966 encyclopaedia entry instead says that “a deed of trust” was executed on 6 May 1932 while a deed of gift was being completed. I have not yet located that alleged 6 May instrument. The two dates therefore cannot be treated as the same deed.
This changes the chronology materially. Tirikātene entered Parliament on 3 August 1932 — before the proved 18 November execution date. His possible representation on the Board could therefore have been a live issue during the period in which the final statutory deed was being settled. If a separate 6 May preliminary instrument is eventually located, we will need to compare its parties, property, membership provisions and legal effect against the 18 November deed. Until then, the 18 November instrument is the deed we can prove Parliament incorporated.
The research rule here is simple: do not repair conflicting dates by assumption. Find the missing instrument.
After Te Rata died, the Board confirmed his son Korokī in 1934 “in place of his late father”, again for Māori south of Auckland. Later Hepi Te Heuheu sat on the Board representing the Māori Queen. The position therefore developed a persistent Kīngitanga-linked institutional pattern even though the statute never converted it into a hereditary office of the Māori monarch.
Finding: Kīngitanga representation was real and deliberate. Not proved: that the south-of-Auckland seat was constitutionally vested in the Kīngitanga, or that succession to the Waitangi office and succession to the Māori throne are the same thing.
Sources: 1932 statutory deed — executed 18 November 1932; National Library — Declaration of Trust, 18 November 1932; 1966 Encyclopaedia account — unverified 6 May claim; Eruera Tirikātene, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography; 9 December 1932 parliamentary report; official 1932 Southern Māori election return; Korokī appointment confirmation, 7 February 1934; Hepi Te Heuheu biography.