 During the 1830s, Otara was among many present-day suburbs of Manukau & Auckland originally included within the boundaries of what became known as the "Tamaki Block" or "Fairburn Purchase".Between 1836 and 1839, the newly arrived Church Mission Society (CMS) missionary William Thomas Fairburn began moves to establish a mission station at Maraetai while attempting to purchase a vast tract of land from various iwi of Auckland.Brokered as "an act of Christian peacemaking" between warring tribes on the Tamaki isthmus, Fairburn obtained "signatures" to the deed of purchase from over 30 Rangatira; few, if any of whom could read or write.