President Spencer W. Kimball quoted President Joseph F. Smith as saying, "You brethren and sisters from New Zealand, I want you to know that you are from the people of Hagoth." President Kimball then stated, "Corianton was a member of that sailing party." (Conference Report, New Zealand Area Conference 1976, p. 3)
A letter dated February 6, 1911, from the First Presidency (bearing the "imprint" of Joseph F. Smith) says the following:
Brothers and sisters, let us pause a moment and raise the question in your own minds, why you, in common with others of your race inhabiting the isles of the sea, were to be more blessed and favored of the Lord than the rest of the House of Israel inhabiting this, our land of America? . . . it was simply because of your forefathers . . . the Lord in His superior wisdom, directed their course away from this continent to their island homes, that they might be separated from their more wicked disobedient brethren, that they might not be left to be preyed upon and destroyed by the more wicked part of the House of Israel . . .
[Bruce Sutton, Personal Communication] [See Vol. 6, Appendix D for a collection of authoritative statements on Book of Mormon geography]
Note* Perhaps Hagoth was a leader or governor over that part of the Nephite lands from which the sailing party and Corianton departed.