OUR FAMOUS TREATY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR FAMOUS TREATY

BY MATANGA

NEW LIGHT ON OLD FACTS

The second edition of Mr. Lindsay Buick's " The Treaty of Waitangi " is all that a second edition should be. Even the time of its publishing is right. It is dedicated to the vice-regal donors " whoso magnificent gift to the Dominion of the Waitangi Estate has preserved to the people of New Zealand the classic ground whereon the Treaty was negotiated and signed on sth and 6th February, 1840." Their Excellencies' gracious action, inspired by high vision and true public spirit, has brought home to many in this land, and not a few elsewhere, the epochal events that gave birth to British rule in these islands; and the time fast approaches for centennial celebration of those events. To know what the treaty was, why it was necessary as a basis of regular British colonisation, how it was negotiated and how vitally woven it must ever be in the interracial concord of two peoples that have come to trust each other, is now particularly desirable. Under Mr. Buick's expert and pleasant guidanco this knowledge is made widely available in a fashion as thorough as it is authoritative. The book is much more than a second printing of its issue nineteen years ago. Since that went " out of print " —a phrase eloquent of the welcome given to its useful telling of this part of our old story —further research has been pursued in directions that could not earlier be completely followed. At the first writing, difficulties were many. The requisito material was somewhat surprisingly fragmentary and scattered. Even in the interval of but seventy years or so there had been lost some threads of historical recollection. Of those present as children at the signing of the treaty only two remained —one, Rahira te Hua (daughter of one of great Hongi's slaves), the other, Bishop Leonard Williams, of Waiapu. Such contemporary memoranda as had survived were found to contain ambiguities and contradictions; some added to perplexities. Yet, within the circle of light then shed by documentary and other " sources," Mr. Buick did his work so well that he made this field of study peculiarly his own. To do it again was, therefore, his task rather than that of others. More Closely in Line with Truth Fortunately his maintained interest in the theme has kept him alertly questing, and the outcome is seen in what has value as a new book by the practised hand that wrote the old. " It has to he admitted." Mr. Buick says, in the preface to this edition, " that much water has run under the bridge since the book was originally written. Additional information has been made available, and older facts now appear in a new perspective. In these circumstances. while the story stands substantially as it was first told, it has been possible to garnish the text with some more recently discovered details; some historical puzzles have been solved, and some readjustments have been made which bring the facts more closely into line with historical truth." Of these adjustments lie names outstanding instances, but all are valuable, for in history there are no trifles. One interesting problem is still unsolved—the precise spot, on which sovereignty over Stewart Island was declared. Somebody may yet light in his digging on the place where the authentic copy of the declaration was buried in a bottle. Till then. Mr. Buick's approximate fixing of the location is the best harmony of warranted data. Reference here to this problem indicates that the book has greater scope than its narration of Captain Hobson's personal share in the negotiation of the treaty. It is this full scope that invests Mr. Buick's work with such inestimable value. Vivid and Just

The treaty itself is but the focal point of a remarkable development in British colonial policy, and nothing relevant is left out of sight. With untiring patience the path leading to Waitangi is traced, enabling the reader to see motive and plan in the doing of all, until the achievement, with its romance and implications, comes into view for illuminating description. A manifest care for a just as well as a vivid narration is everywhere, and so complete is the recital that it can never be superseded. Avenues of particular research open here and there, but those moved to explore them must start on these few bypaths from the points where this volume shows them to be. Unless they enter from its clear road they will run the risk of fruitless toil. There is room for discussion on legal interpretations of the famous document, as current events bear witness, yet even this, if Mr. Buick's work be rightly valued, will be helpfully narrowed to points whereon there can be profitable agreement. For the general reader, as well as the enthusiastic student, there is attraction in every page. The past lives again aud the present can be better understood. So much centres in the treaty—for CQnstitutional law and practice, missionary adventurings, developments of industry and trade, and the manifold interests related to contact between European and Maori all touch it closely —that to know all that can be known about it is a liberal education in early New Zealand history. Besides this, there is thus understood the groundwork of more recent happenings. Consequently, if one subject above others is entitled to commendation as supremely worth close and accurate study bv every New Zealander. white or brown, it is here Revised Judgments Of the many new points made, none is more interesting than the settlement of the question as to whether Hone Heke was the first to sign. That he did so is now proved beyond shadow of doubt. His signature—long a mission native, he was not under necessity to append his " mark " in place of that is not at the top. Other names are there, with proof of their addition at a later date, when crowding signatures left little room for more; and there was until lately an idea that a certain " Pokai," appearing out of line, was this chief, signing with carefree assertiveness in the middle of the large, untouched space beneath the written compact. Pokai he was, although customarily known as Hono Heke, and the first of the signatures on February 6, obliterated somewhat in the adventures of the document, was read as " Kiore Heke " and so described by a Government official reporting long afterwards. However, Mr. Buick has now satisfied himself that this was a misreading, that it really represents " Hone Heke," and that the " Pokai " appearing elsewhere was a less-known cousin. As Hone Heko is differently reported as to his first attitude to the treaty, and became afterwards a leader of revolt, the point is not unimportant. The painstaking care with which it has been cleared up in this edition is indicative of the vast amount of toil with which every as]x?ct of a most fascinating subject has been rehandled. In this revision is an inestimably useful and pleasing addition to the growing literature of our country. It places New Zealand more than ever in the debt of an. unusually competent historian.