Low-key talk on Waitangi

Press, 7 February 1985, Page 8

Low-key talk on Waitangi

PA Wellington New Zealanders must understand their history or they would go unsighted into tomorrow, said the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, at the Waitangi Day reception at the Beehive last evening. In a low-key speech Mr Lange said the formal commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi was part of the vital process of understanding the history of New Zealand. “If we do not know the expectations of the past, we are doomed to disappointment in the present,” said Mr Lange. There were wrongs in New Zealnd that had yet be righted. “We cannot prepare the future for our country but we can prepare our country

for the future.” Mr Lange said the national holiday allowed people a chance to come to terms with what New Zealand meant to them. They should recognise their rich diversity and celebration of nationhood. “Let us focus on the events at the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi as a means of resolving the errors of the past,” he said.“ Let us join in formal commemoration, as we now do here.

“We shall all, in our different fashion, celebrate New Zealand as a nation free to make our own way, free to resolve our difficulties and differences in our own manner, and to mark our achievements in a way which is true to our own character.”