Symbol cloaked in ambiguity—P.M.

Press, 7 February 1986, Page 5

Symbol cloaked in ambiguity —P.M.

PA Wellington The holding of the official Waitangi Day celebrations in Wellington was aimed at making a distinction between remembering the treaty and the celebration of New Zealand, said the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, yesterday.

“Perhaps we ask too much of one day to let it serve both as remembrance and celebration,” Mr Lange told guests in the Beehive as protesters chanted and blocked a street outside.

While the treaty was the most powerful symbol in New Zealand’s history, it was a symbol cloaked in ambiguity. “The more we study the treaty and the circumstances which surrounded it, the further certainty recedes from us,” Mr Lange said. The treaty had been both a focus of pride and a barrier between Maori and Pakeha.

Mr Lange said that while New Zealanders

should address themselves to the treaty’s standing in law as well as natural justice, it was more than that

“It is a focus for our aspirations, disappointed or fulfilled, the reminder of our limitations and the expression of our hopes.”

It was now more than 10 years since February 6 had been declared a public holiday in observance of New Zealand’s national day.

“Perhaps it is ironic that the growing sense of identity which led to the creation of that holiday also encouraged the reassessment of the past which questioned the appropriateness of the treaty as cause for celebration. “We are not the poorer for that questioning,” Mr Lange said. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, told the official reception in Wellington that it was sad the function to commemorate the treaty was being held in the Beehive

instead of at Waitangi.

“Concrete walls cannot replace a clear northern sky, nor aluminium murals replace the sparkling waters of the Bay of Islands,” Mr Bolger said. The National Party’s leader, Mr McLay, attended the local celebrations at Waitangi yesterday.

Mr Bolger said that while the dominant European culture had to be especially sensitive to other cultures, New Zealanders not privileged to have some Maori blood in their veins did not accept being cast in the mould of the guilty party. There was a responsibility to resolve outstanding difficulties, but the solutions to today’s problems would not be found by picking over the bones of the last 146 years. Mr Bolger said New Zealanders should concentrate bn aspects of the treaty that united them instead of belabouring those upon which they disagreed.