THE TREATY OF WAITANGI

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23323, 8 May 1941, Page 12

THE TREATY OF WAITANGI

♦ MAORIS’ RIGHTS PRIVY COUNCIL DECISION (P.A.) ROTORUA, May 7. Leading counsel for the appellant before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the appeal of Te Heu Heu versus the Aotea Maori Land Board (Mr H. Hampson) has returned to Rotorua, but is reluctant to express an opinion on the judgment, which has not yet reached New Zealand. He agreed that the important question the committee had been asked to - decide was whether the Maoris had been granted a right by the Treaty of Waitangi as they had been assured by Captain Hobson in 1840. “If such a- treaty right never existed, or alternatively, if the people of New Zealand were authorised by the British Parliament to legislate in derogation of the treaty, then the Maori people have all been sold a pup. It became necessary ■ for, the Maoris to ascertain from the Judicial Committee what right, if any, the treaty gave them,” said Mr Hampson. Acting upon. the assumption that the committee might decide that the Maoris had no legal rights (as apparently had been done) the leaders of the Maori tribes throughout New Zealand, on February 6, 1940, signed a memorial to the Privy Council claiming' that as by the treaty the Maori people had surrendered their sovereignty in return for, a, guarantee then, if such guarantee were worthless, the present . claim of the British Empire to defend the rights of small peoples was inconsistent. "Through the breach of the treaty Te Heu |jeu and his people were not only saddled with an admittedly unjust liability of £23,500, but the Grown, in parens patriae for the Maori people, had ‘purchased’ £1,300,000 worth of timber lands for £76,000. . “Similarly, the Maoris of the South Island, Taranaki, Waikato, North Auckland, East Coast, Urewera, and elsewhere have been heavily despoiled and have rested upon unfulfilled pro; mises of redress. Moreover Maori 'legislation of the last 25. years in breach of the treaty has reduced thg Maoris to a state of servitude.” Mr Hampson declared that the Maori people by their memorial, were seeking from the Empire with whom they had contracted by treaty, for a commission presided over by a British law lord to investigate the grievances. Mr Hampson was confident that Britain would grant the request.