This study investigates the influence of public servants on treaty settlements. The research examines the origin of the public servant, which coincided with the exponential growth of Pākehā settlers to these shores, all with an insatiable demand for Māori land. The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 between Māori and the Crown was not the panacea for the return of stolen Māori land but signaled the arrival of colonisation. The role of public servants was to facilitate the demands of their political masters, and it could be argued they were complicit in the subsequent devastation caused, and wars initiated by the Crown to quash Māori resistance to their land being taken. To address Māori concerns the Crown introduced a treaty settlement process that supposedly compensated Māori fairly for the land taken. A compensation package that pays out two to three cents for every dollar taken, is not fair in anyone's language.