A READER’S MEDLEY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 113, 6 February 1935, Page 7

A READER’S MEDLEY

TREATY OF WAITANGI SIGNED Ninety-live years ago to-day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. The Maoris agreed to acknowledge the sovereignty of Queen Victoria and in return the ’Queen gave to the Maoris all the rights of British subjects and guaranteed them in the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession of their lands, which from that date could be sold only to the Governor as representing the Queen. A spacious marquee profusely decorated with flags had been erected and at noon Captain Hobson entered the tent accompanied by Mr. Bushby, the late Resident, the principal European inhabitants, the heads of the English and Drench missions, the Government officers, ,and the officers of H.M.S. Herald.

Captain Hobson explained to the Maoris in the fullest manner, clause by clause, the effect of the Treaty, and assured them that they might rely implicitly on the good .faith of her Majesty’s Government in the trapsaction. Mr. Henry Williams, of the Church Missionary Society, interpreted what Captain Hobson said to the Maoris. Twenty of thirty chiefs addressed the meeting, five or six of them very hostile. When things seemed black a Hokianga chief, Tamati Waka Nene, spoke in support of the Treaty, exhorting the chiefs to sign it. . Turning to Captain Hobson he said: “You must be our father. You must not allow us to become slaves. You must preserve our customs, and never permit our lands to be wrested from us.” Next day (February 6) the Treaty was signed by 46 head-chiefs in the presence of at least 500 of inferior degree. The following day, February 7, a salute of 21 guns announced that New Zealand had become a colony of Great Britain.