THIS WEEK'S ANNIVERSARY

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 85, 8 February 1928, Page 2

THIS WEEK'S ANNIVERSARY

j TREATY OF WAITANGI. QUAINT MAORI VERSION OF THE SIGNING. 11 10 signing of the Treaty of W'aitangi oa I'cln'uary Uth, 1810, was a mefuurable event m the history ot New Zealand- To a volume entitled “Old Now Zealand,” published in 1893, there is annexed ai “History of the War in the North of New Zealand against the Chief lleke', in the year 1815 ! Told by an old Chief of tho Ngapuhi Tribe,” in 'wlhioh (appears the following quaint reference to tho Treaty: Then came a chief of the pakeha who wo heard was called a Governor. We were very glad of ; Ids arrival, because we, heard he was a grept chief,, and we thought he, ho , lug a great chief, would have more ' blankets, and tobacco, and muskets than any of the other pakeha people, and that ho would often give ns plenty of theso things for nothing. Tho reason we thought so was because all too other pakeha often made ,ns presents of things of great value, besides what we got from; them by trading. Who would not have 11 thought as we did? The next thing wo heard was that the Governor was travelling ail over the country with a large piece of paper, asking all tile chiefs toi write their names or make marks on it. We heard, also, that

tiic Ngapulii chiefs, who had madr marks or written on that paper, hat been given tobacco, and flour, am sugar, and many other things for having done so. We all tried tc find out tire reason why the Governor was .so anxious to get ns to make these marks. Some of us thought tire Governor wanted to bewitch all the chiefs, but our pakeha friends laughed at this, and told ns! that the people of Europe did not know how to bewitch people. Some told ns, one thing, some another. Some said Gai Jovernor only wanted our consent to remain, to be a chief over the pai. ihai people ; others said he wanted to he chief over both pakeha and Maori. We did not know, what to trunk, but were all anxious be might come to ns soon; for we were afraid that ail his blankets, and tobacco., and other things would be gone before be came-to bur part 0 f the coimtiy, and 1 that he would hav'e nothing leit to pay ns for making our marks on his plaper. Well, it was not long before the Governor came, and with him came other pakeha chiefs, and also (people who could speak Maori; so we ail gathered together, chiefs and shaves, women and children, and weirt to rireet him; and when we met the G o vern o r, the sjwaker of Maori told ns that if wo put our names, or ever made any sert of a mark on that paper, the Governor would then protect ns, and prevent ns, from being robbed of our culti-

vated land, and our timber land, and everything, else .which belonged to us. Some of the people were very much alarmed when t- ey heard tins, for they thought that perhaps a great war expedition was coming against us from some distant country, to destroy us all; others said bd wag only trying to frighten us. The speaker of Maori then went cor to tell us certain things, but the meaning of what ho said wa s so closely concealed wo never have luund it out. One tiling we understood well, however, for ho told u« plainly that rf wo wrote .on the Governor's pajper, one of the consequences would be that jgrerat numbers of pakeha would come to this country to trade with us, that wo should have abundance of valuable* gooTTs, and that before long there would ho great towns, as large as Jvororareka, in every harbour in the whole island.'' We were very glad tot bear this, for w® Could never up t 0 thi s time, gqb half muskets or

gunpowder enough, or blankets, or tobacco, or axes or anything. We al.s 0 believed what the speaker of Maori told us, because we saw that our old pakeha. friends who came with

us to see the Governor believed it. Alter; the speaker of Maori had ceased, then To Tao Aliu and some other chidls came forward and wrote cm the paper xxxx but the Governor did not give them anything. v\ o did not like this, so some other chiefs went forward and said to the Governor: “Pay ns first,, and we will wiito afterwards.” A chief from Qma<naia said: “Put money in. niy left hand, and I will write my name with fy “fihtand SO he hold out his hand to the Governor for the money • I huh the Governor sho n k hi s head ami seemed displeased, and said lie would ! "o* P a .y them for writing on' the | paper. _ N o w, when all the people saw this they were; very mncTT vexed and began to say one to ft i,s wasting our la. boor coming hero l to see this Governor”, anc [ 10 chiefs began t 0 get up and make speeches, .... At tins timci somo pakehas went amongst the crowd and isaid to them, “Yon arc foolish.

file Governor intends to pay you when all the writing is done, but it is not proper that he should prom, iso to do so. It w o idd ho said yon ■only wrote your names for pay, and ibis, according to om- ideas, would b<> a very wrong thing.” When we heard this we all began to write! as fast as we could, for we were all very hungry with, listening and talking no Jong and wo wanted to ,gu to got isomothing to cat, and we were also i,u a hurry to see what the Governor was going to give us. All the slaves wanted to write their names, so that the Governor might think they were chiefs, and pay them but the, chiefs would not lot them, for they wanted all the payment f o r themselves. I and all my ~ family made our marks and wo then went to get something to oat. . . . Next morning the things came with which the Governor intended to( pay n IS for I

[ writing our names, lint lliero was not much tobacco, and only lew blankets; and when they were divided some of the chiefs had inoitliing, others got only a few figs of toinioco, some one blanket, ethers two, I got for myself and all my sous., and my two brothers, and my three wires, only two blankets. I thought it was too little, and wa s going to return thorn, but my brother persuaded mo to keep them; sq wet got into our canoe to go home, and on the way home we began to say: “Who shall have the blankets ?” And so we began to quarrel about them. Uue of my brothers then .said; “Let ns cut them in pieces, and give everyone, a piece.” i saw thejre was going to be a dispute about them, and saiil : “Let u s isend them back.” So we went ashore at the house of a pakeiia, and got a. pen and sonnet paper, and my sou, who could write, wrote a letter for usi all to the Governor, telling him to take back the blankets and to cut our names out of the paper. Then my two brothers and my sons went, .buck and found the Governor in a boat, about to go away. He would not take back the blankets, hut ho took the letter. Ido not know to this day whether lie took our names out of the paper. it is. however, no matter. What is there in a tew black marks? Who cares anything about them? Well, after this, the Governor died. He was bewitched, as T have) heard, by a tbJiunga at the South, where he had gone to get names to his paper; for this was his chief delight, to get plenty of namefe and marks 0 11 his paper. He may not have) been bewitched, as I have heard but he certainly died, and thei paper with all the names wa ;S either buried with him, or else his relatives may have kept"lt to lament Over and as a remembrance of him.