TREATY OF WAITANGI.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3751, 7 February 1928, Page 2

TREATY OF WAITANGI.

THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY.

Wlellington, Last Night.

To-day is the eighty-eighth anniversary of the signing of the : Treaty of iWaitangi by which the representative - chiefs of the Maori?tribes of New Zealand ceded to the Queen of England all their rights of sovereign and by which ner Majesty extended to the Maoris her Royal protection and imparted to them all the rights and privileges of British subjects.

Some of* the beneficial results of that compact were mentioned by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. J. G. -Coates) in an address broadcast from Station 2YA to-night, reference being made also to the valiant way in which the natives proved their loyalty during the Great War. The historical aspects of the Treaty were dealt with in a speech by the Hon. Sir Maui Pomare, who also paid a tribute to the manner in which the present Government had interpreted the true spirit of the compact. “The amicable relations and complete understanding now existing between the Maori and pakeha races resident in this Dominion have been brought about by the Treaty of Waitangi,” said the Prime Minister. “The continued recognition by various Governments of the moral rights reserved to the Maoris under that compact has been largely responsible for this fraternal union of the two peoples. Of this there can be no question. “At no time has the legislature of New Zealand been callously unmindful of or even indifferent to the true spirit of the Treaty. Never has t been careless of the great trust imposed upon it as the guardian of native rights.

1 . “This commendable endeavour to observe that justice which is the paramount interest of all men and all Commonwealths has finally led to the universal acceptance of the Treaty by the native race as the basis of their civil and political privileges. “When, therefore, the Great War broke out the Maori tribes throughout New Zealand, recognising their responsibilities as British subjects by virtue of that Treaty, and without hesitation vioiuntarily offered the services of their sons to fight the common foe in defence of the Empire. This wonderful response was their generous recognition in 1914 of the protection given them by Britain in 1840.

“To-day, after 88 years,” concluded the Premier, “we can say that our earlier differences with the Maori race are at an end. Maori and European are now as one, and we feel that the happy position the Maori occupies in this beautiful land of ours is due in a very great degree to that simple little scrap of papev signed by the grand old chiefs 88 years ago, the Treaty of Waitangi. Kia Ora.”