Race relations and the Treaty

Press, 12 April 1983, Page 20

Race relations and the Treaty

The question of race relations in New Zealand is receiving increasing public attention. The Labour member of Parliament for Eastern Maori, Dr PETER TAPSELL, looked at some of the issues in a recent speech at Rotorua, from which these extracts are taken.

Race relations is a subject we must face up to. There are a lot of people talking about it, and there are worrying signs that we are moving steadily but inexorably from co-operation to confrontation. Those among us who claim inheritance from both Maori and European stock have an unusually good opportunity to help improve race relations. We Maori politicians have a very special responsibility; time may very well show it was our greatest responsibility. I am talking about bi-cultural relations — between Maori and pakeha — and avoiding multi-' cultural relations because that is a term often used to “fudge” over problem areas. Because there are so many problems over a variety of fronts, people wish to be excused from doing anything positive on one front. We should concentrate on the first step before taking the second, and the biggest minority in this country is Maori. Maori people have a right to expect that other New Zealanders will face up to their problem first, if only because they have been here so much

longer than anyone else. Over the years a great deal has been said about the Treaty of Waitangi. It is a source of a great deal of discussion right now. I never cease to be amazed at how ignorant the vast majority of New Zealanders are about the Treaty. We seem to have decided to studiously ignore it. Most New Zealanders believe that the Treaty was signed following the defeat of the Maoris in the wars. In fact, the wars did not break out until some 20 years after the signing of the Treaty. The Maori Wars were not wars of conquest; they were civil wars between two groups of people entitled to protection under the Treaty, which it failed to provide. The Treaty is, a simple document of three articles. Only a few of the 512 chiefs who eventually signed it actually did so on February 6. In the first article, the chiefs ceded sovereignty to the Queen; in the second, the Queen guaranteed to the chiefs “full, exclusive and undisturbed” possession of their land, estates, forests and fisheries;

in the third, the chiefs were given Royal protection and the rights and privileges of British subjects. For more than 100 years we have almost ignored the Treaty. Many Maoris are now saying it was a fraud, that it has been dishonoured, and we should forget it. I do not believe that. I am willing to believe Hobson and his group, and the Maori chiefs, who signed the Treaty did so honorably and with good intentions. Yet at the same time I do not think it was signed by two willing and equal signatories. It was signed with a gun boat in the harbour. The Maori chiefs knew that if they did not sign, British supremacy would be imposed in any event. Maori chiefs of that day were quite used to intimidation. At the time the Treaty was signed, Maori tribes were still fighting furiously among themselves. From time to time we hear calls for the Treaty to be “ratified.” I have never met anyone who was able to explain quite what that meant or what its effects would be. If by “ratification” is meant writing the Treaty into law, then that is quite impossible and I am quite certain no Government would ever attempt to do it. I think the call to “ratify” the Treaty is made quite mischievously by people who ought to know better, giving large numbers

of people quite unrealistic and false hopes. There is no way the Treaty can be written into law the way it is, and I cannot see that any modification is likely to achieve greater acceptance. There are many people who say the Treaty ought to be incorporated into a new written constitution — a Bill of Rights. I certainly believe that in writing legislation which will particularly affect Maori people we ought to have regard for the general principles of the Treaty. But I am yet to be convinced that we have anything to gain from a written constitution. The optimists say that one day we will be a race of brown-skinned people, most of whom will have some Maori blood, and there will be no “real Maoris” left. That Utopia is many hundreds of years away — much too far away for us to wait for it. In the meantime, we must take active and vigorous steps to improve race relations in New Zealand. Several countries are showing the horror of having allowed race relations to deteriorate to the point of bloodshed. We must not have that. Figures from the last census show that in almost every field of endeavour — education, health, housing, employment, and so on — there is a frightening difference between the achievement of

Maoris and other New Zealanders. We must take vigorous “affirmative” action to redress the balance before it is too late. In some areas, simply “providing equal opportunity” will not be enough to close the gapEqually, we Maoris will have an important part to play in improving race relations. Many of us will need to chance our own positions, to make greater efforts to adapt to change and to forge for ourselves a place in New Zealand in the future. With guidance and good leadership, we can expect our race relations in New Zealand to improve, gradually.