TREATY OF WAITANGI

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1942, Page 6

TREATY OF WAITANGI

QUESTION OF STATUS

Arising out of the presentation to the Methodist Conference of the home mission report, the Rev. G. I. Laurenson moved "That the attention of the Government be drawn to the fact that until the whole question of the status of the Treaty of Waitangi is cleared up, the matter will remain a source of concern to the Maori people."

Speaking to the motion, the Rev. A. B. Chappell said that the Treaty had been described as the Magna Carta of the Maori people. "But," continued the speaker, ;'the Magna Carta is not written into the body of English law, and any attempt to write the Treaty of Waitangi into the law of the Dominion would be an unwise move. Governments prior to elections have not hesitated to make a stalking horse of this important question."

In this view he was supported by

several speakers

Replying, Mr. Laurenson said that the motion made no attempt to have the Treaty of Waitangi embodied in

the law of the land, for that was a political question.

The motion was carried almost unanimously.