The land was owned by Alexander Currie, chairman of the directors of the New Zealand Company. After Chief Wi Tako relinquished the lease of Te Mako in 1860, he agreed to have entrusted in Beetham's care a nationally significant Māori pātaka store house "Nuku Tewhatewha" that he had commissioned in 1856. This was carved by Horonuku Te Heu Heu of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. This taonga remains an important Māori carving and a symbol of solidarity and support to the Māori King movement Kingitanga. It formed one of the seven "Pillars of the Kingdom" (Nga Pou o te Kingitanga) and is the only one to have survived. In 1982, after 122 years of care Hugh Beetham, William's great grandson decided to return the pātaka to the City of Lower Hutt and it is now permanently housed at the Dowse Art Museum. Beetham eventually purchased the Te Mako land in 1876. In 1856 Beetham also purchased a leasehold for land at Wainuioru in the Wairarapa for his sons, which by 1857 they had developed into the Brancepeth Estate. After the marriage of his eldest daughter Annie Beetham to T.C. Williams in 1858, Brancepeth was rapidly expanded and run by the Beetham-Williams family partnership to become one of the largest pastorals stations in New Zealand with 77,000 acres, 100,000 sheep, 300 employees and a 32 room homestead (10,000 sq ft) of Scottish baronial styled design with battlemented tower. Designed by the architect Joshua Charlesworth, Heritage New Zealand has listed Brancepeth as a Category 1 site. Brancepeth was used as a location for Board meetings of the International Wool Secretariat in 1964 and also visited by H.R.H. Charles, Prince of Wales when he wanted to observe an exemplary sheep station in New Zealand. Brancepeth also welcomed the BBC and Robin Day to film farming in NZ for the British public. Beetham remained in the Hutt Valley where he farmed a small holding, though painting remained his private and public priority. In accordance with the tradition of Victorian portrait painters, Beetham never signed or dated his work. The subjects were considered of more importance than the artist. Identification of the artist of such work relies on solid provenance. Beetham's first commission to paint Māori came within a month of his arrival to NZ when Tamihana Te Rauparaha requested a posthumous portrait of his father Te Rauparaha, a Māori rangatira Chief and war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe who composed the famous Haka called Ka Mate.