Paengahuru signed the Waikato-Manukau sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi at Waikato Heads, with the Anglican missionaries Robert Maunsell and Benjamin Ashwell as his witnesses. He signed in late March or early April 1840, though the treaty sheet has been dated 11 April.
In the previous year Paengahuru had been one of 12 to sell the Maraetai block at Waikato Heads to Maunsell and Ashwell. The deed states that those who signed belonged to Ngāti Tāhinga, and that they were paid 23 blankets, one sovereign (£1), 12 axes, 16 adzes, 14 shirts, 14 pairs of trousers, 14 pounds of soap, 10 New Testaments, 13 pairs of scissors, six spades, 17 pocket mirrors, 20 razors, six handkerchiefs and 55 pounds (25 kg) of tobacco.
In 1869 a Paengahuru from Waikato is recorded as being of Ngāti Mahuta. He spoke to C. O. Davis, an interpreter, at a Kīngitanga (Māori King movement) meeting. This Paengahuru was unwilling to describe the boundaries of his land. He would say only that, ‘The land is like a stricken bird, whose wings are quivering on account of the pain.’ [1]
[1] Quoted in Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, 7 July 1869, p. 6