WAITANGI.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1934, Page 6

WAITANGI.

SIGNING OF THE TREATY,

CHIEFS WHO STOOD OUT.

(By J.C.)

One of the remarkable facts about the Treaty of Waitangi negotiations is the number of important chiefs who declined to sign the document that ceded the overlordship of New Zealand to the British Crown. Some of the greatest rangatiras in the North Island refused to follow the lead of Ngapuhi in transferring the supreme niana of the land to the white Queen. Their objections were grounded on a variety of reasons. Some of the chiefs naturally hesitated to enter into a solemn covenant the consequences of which they could not foresee, and some with an excusable clan pride refused to acknowledge a mana superior to their own. Te Heuheu, of Taupo, was the most uncompromising objector of all. "I will not agree to the mana of a strange people being placed over this land," he told his missionary interviewer. Though every other tribe in the island should accept the pakeha rule, he would no do so. He scorned to place his chieftainship beneath that of a woman. He compelled his younger brother, Iwikau —who had signed the Treaty when on a visit to the North —to withdraw his mark of assent and to return the red blankets which had been presented to him, as to all other signatories to the Treaty. To his last day, in 1840, he proudly asserted his place as paramount chief of the heart of the island; and of course at that early period the coming of the pakeha and the exercise of British rule did not in any way impair the independence of any of the tribes in the interior of the country.

Arawa Opposition. Nor did any of the other chiefs of -the Arawa division of the race accept the Treaty. The descendants of the Arawa immigrants occupied the country from Maketu 011 the coast, to South Taupo, and over all that territory they maintained independence, quite friendly to the pakelia but indifferent to the Government for some years after the signing of the Treaty. Te Heuheu's voice determined their attitude. Jt may seem strange that the Arawa, who in after years were the strongest opponents of the Waikato King and the most staunch supporters of the white Government, should have been in the beginning so unanimous in their rejection of the Treaty. The key to their attitude is to be found in certain historical facts which were not openly referred to at the conference with the Government emissaries, the missionaries John Morgan and Thomas Chapman, and which are not mentioned in the published narrative of the Treaty negotiations. The Arawa had not forgotten Hongi's invasion and the capture of Mokoia Island. That fearful episode in Arawa history had occurred only 17 years before the coming of the British flag and the signing of the Treaty. The invasion by the musketeers of Ngapuhi and the consequent slaughter of the ill-armed Arawa and the carrying away into captivity of many scores of the Rotorua people were still raw and red in the Lakelanders' memory. No good thing could come out of the North. The Ngapuhi had accepted the Treaty, and that was a sufficient reason why the Arawa should not accept it. They distrusted every move made by Ngapuhi; the clan hated was still strong and bitter. Waikato Attitude. Te Heuheu and his people of the Taupo country had not suffered at the hands of Ngapuhi, and so had no utu account outstanding. To Heuheu's objections were a matter of principle. lie came presently to approve Ngapuhi's attitude when they, under Hone Heke, made war 011 the British at the Bay of Islands. Heke became a popular hero among many tribes all over the island. When Sir Donald Maclean, then a young Government native officer, visited Te Heuheu at South Taupo in 1845, lie found the old chief strongly championing Heke's cause and wishing him success. Many Waikato chiefs signed the Treaty, at Kawhia and Waikato Heads, but the greatest of all, Te Wherowliero, afterwards King Potatau, refused to set his mark 011 the Governor's "pukapuka." His objection, like the Arawa chiefs', was not so much suspicion of British motives as dislike of the Ngapuhi. Dislike was probably a mild term for his feelings. He had not forgotten Matakitaki, whpre the Waikato were so frightfully slaughtered by the Ngapuhi gun-armed expedition under Hongi and other Bay of Islands chiefs in 1821. He himself had had a narrow escape there, and one of his children had been killed. A few years later Waikato squared, accounts with the Northern invaders to some degree by cutting off a war canoe party at Te J! ore, 011 the Waipa. But there were later . invasions, and Waikato had abundant cause to fear trouble from the North. So To Wlierovvhero, an even greater chieftain than Te Heuheu, held aloof from Treaty and missionary coaxings, and not until Governor Grey came on the scene and took the trouble to make friends with him were his suspicions overcome.. But he and his descendants were always able to say that they had not given over their mana to the Queen. Te Waharoa, the fierce old warrior who led the Ngati-llaua tribe 011 many a field, had died the year before the Treaty, but it is extremely improbable that he would have signed it had he been alive. His son, Wiremu Tameliana, soon to become famous as the Maori Kingmaker, the founder of the Kingite confederation, did not sign the document. Two of the Ngati-llaua chiefs put their marks to a Treaty sheet, when 011 a visit to Waikato Heads, but the tribe as a whole stood out. So did Ngati-Haua's great enemy Taraia, that always truculent lord of the Upper Waihou and Oliinemuri country. Taraia sturdily maintained his independence, and in 1842, when he made a ferocious cannibal raid on Katikati, he was extremely annoyed at the Government's mild remonstrance against his "breach of the peace." What business was it of the Government's? The bearers of the Treaty sheets, the missionaries and Government officers, do not appear to have gone far from the coast anywhere in their efforts to obtain signatures. •So in many parts of the interior the chiefs, even had they been ■ disposed to do so, had no opportunity of' signing. The Urewera or Tuhoe tribes, for example, were not approached; in fact, they Lad scarcely been heard of. And some parts of the west coast, such as Mokau, were not visited. But most of the principal men of what is now the King Country were seen at Waikato Heads and Kawliia and were won over to the new regime and went home rejoicing robed in their new red blankets. Pax Britannica. So the five hundred odd signatures to the Treaty diid not represent the whole population of Maoridom. There remained several thousands of people who did not consider themselves subjects of the pakelia Queen. Indeed it "was contended by some pakehas in high places that those who did not sign, such as Taraia, could not be regarded as amenable to British law. But by about 1850 all the Maori objections to the new order had disappeared. Despite a little war or two, the advantages of the British protection and the solid charms of trade and the good things that trade and industry brought had conquered early distrust. Greatly was this winning over due to the magnetic influence and the diplomatic gifts of Governor Grey. The Pax Britannica was effective by that time; mistakes, dissensions and land troubles ending in long and disastrous war were yet to come*