Old Waitangi prepares for 1990

Press, 19 December 1989, Page 34

Old Waitangi prepares for 1990

By

Naylor Hillary,

who flew to

Northland as a guest of Air New Zealand.

Waitangi, the place where New Zealand’s formal history began, is gearing up for the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi next February. The Treaty House, the home of James Busby, the first British official resident in New Zealand, is being refurbished. The Maori meeting house (or whare runanga), built in 1940 for the 100th anniversary of the treaty’s signing, is looking fresh and ready. The giant war canoe, Ngatokimatawhaorua (translated as “the adzes which shaped it twice”), rests in its house at Hobson’s Beach. It, too, was constructed in 1940 for the centennial.

Three huge kauris from the nearby Puketi Forest were used to build it. The canoe’s 80 paddles line the walls of its shelter. A small railway has been laid to make easy the launching of the largest war canoe in the world — on the beach where Captain Hobson landed to sign the Treaty. It will sail again next year. The Waitangi Visitors’

Centre, opened by Prince Charles in 1983, looks spruce and efficient. Its audio-visual presentation, run every half-hour during the day, describes events surrounding the treaty.

And on the main road into Paihia, the town nearest to Waitangi, men and machines are at work widening and reshaping the highway to make access easier for the thousands of visitors expected in early February. The old one-lane bridge still links Paihia to Waitangi, its single passing bay barely adequate to handle the tourist coaches, but the tranquil air of a special place remains.

The grounds at Waitangi are among New Zealand’s finest and least appreciated natural monuments. Here, in 506 hectares of reserve, selffinanced by the Waitangi National Trust Board, the treaty was signed and New Zealand’s destiny as a territory of the British Crown began. Today, the reserve also includes the elaborate visitors’ centre, the Waitangi Golf Club, the Bay

of Islands Yacht Club, the Waitangi Bowling Club, a sports area being developed by the Waitangi Recreational Society, and the Tourist Hotel Corporation’s Waitangi Hotel. These commercial uses, carefully controlled, help to finance and maintain the reserve.

Best of all, though not always appreciated by visitors, the reserve has extensive walks through lush native vegetation. Of special interest is the track from the Treaty House to the Haruru Falls on the Waitangi River.

This is a two-hour walk that includes a section on board-walks through mature mangrove swamps, a reminder that New Zealand’s origins lie in its sub-tropical northern extensions, even though the region remains remote from the more temperate and developed southern provinces. The talk right now in Waitangi, and in the nearby town of Paihia, is how vistors for the celebrations in February are going to be accommodated.

The Queen will be present. A Navy review is planned. Tall sailing ships will be in the bay that was once an anchorage for explorers such as James Cook, and for ragged whaling fleets from round the world.

There will be a Maori arts festival going on, with visiting groups from many parts of New Zealand, and from abroad. Hundreds of extra police are being called in to handle what could be one of the biggest events in New Zealand next year. The Army is providing back-up services including catering and tents to accommodate many of the visitors.

But curious questions remain. Members of the National Orchestra might be prepared to sleep in tents, for instance, but their instruments can hardly be left to the uncertainties of humidity and changing temperatures.

Maori rules of hospitality are being challenged by the prospect of thousands of members of distant tribes converging on a small area. The local

Maoris, however much they might want to respect the rules, can hardly provide food and accommodation for everyone.

No doubt all these matters will be sorted out by early February. The biggest problem of all may turn out to be parking for visitors to the celebrations, and finding accommodation for the audiences who want to see and enjoy the ceremonies and concerts of the 150th anniversary. And the prospect of trouble from Maori radicals?

In the Bay of Islands the locals — Maori and European — shrug. The local tribes want events to proceed smoothly. They believe that almost all the visitors will feel the same.

They recognise there might be demonstrations from a minority, but they believe the sheer weight

of those who want to observe Maori good manners and customs will overwhelm any troublemakers.

On the blue waters of the bay, on the magnificent green sweep of the lawns in front of the Treaty House, and through the dappled foliage of the Waitangi reserve, the sun sparkles.

Here, one cannot neip feeling again the good intentions of the mid-19th century. Those feelings produced a remarkable agreement between what seemed at the time to be remote savage and sophisticated Englishmen.

Among the tuis and the totaras it is easy to believe that the ideals of February 6, 1840, can be refurbished and given new force early next year by dignified ceremonials in one of the loveliest corners of New Zealand.