 According to the Waitangi Tribunal, the Fitzroy block deal was less a purchase than a "political settlement based on the reality that there were already settlers on the land, who had to be either accepted or driven out ... (the sale was) more akin to a treaty, because Maori also imposed two significant conditions.The first was that settlers still outside the Fitzroy block would be brought back into it and the second was that the settlers would expand no further.