WAITANGI TREATY

Northern Advocate, 18 July 1933, Page 7

WAITANGI TREATY

LEGALITY QUESTIONED, . /‘VALID BEYOND ALL DOUBT.” (Special to "Northern Advocate, ") NEW PLYMOUTH, This Day. An attack on the validity of the Treaty of Waitangi is contemplated by an influential section of the Maori \ i people, according to statements made by prominent Maoris in Taranaki, The treaty is regarded as sacred by a majority of the Maoris an£ an attack upon it is regarded with serious misgiving, since it secures to natives many rights and privileges which might be lost were the authority of tht document shaken. It is alleged that the leader of a certain Maori sect is collecting money from his adherents with the object of building up a large fund —a sum of £20,000 is mentioned —with which to attack the validity of the treaty. Uneasiness in the minds of many Taranaki Maoris led the Rev. Poohi Moke, a Taranaki Maori minister, to address an appeal by letter to the Governor-General requesting a statement regarding .the legality or otherwise of the treaty. The recent gift to the nation by Lord and Lady Bledisloe of 1009 acres of land, including the site of. the signing of the treaty, together with the appointment of a trtist board with Maori representation, had complicated the issue in the minds of the natives.

The Eev. Mr, Moke has received a reply from Lord Bledisloe containing the statement that the Treaty of Waitangi is valid, beyond all doubt, aud will be .observed. Lord Bledisloe expressed surprise that ’ doubt should have arisen among the natives. The Eev. M. Moke recalled the statement made in the House of Commons on June 9, 1845, when Sir Eobert Peel said regarding the treaty: “I will say that if ever there'was a ease where the stronger party was obliged by its position to respect the demands of the weaker, if ever a powerful country was bound by its engagements with the it was the engagements contracted under such circumstances with these native chiefs. No Governor of New Zealand has done otherwise than declare to the Maoris that the Treaty.was sacred.”