S. D. TAIWHANGA’S MISSION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1330, 17 July 1883, Page 3

S. D. TAIWHANGA’S MISSION.

THE TREATY OF WAITANGI, 6th FEBRUARY, 1840. We have been requested by Mr Sydney D, Taiwhanga to publish the following Utter from the Napier Daily Telegraph Sir, —Taking the conclusion of Sir R. Phillimore and S. F. Wochner, Esq., the two greatest living authorities in the department of international laws, they come to this decision, that the Treaty of Waitangi is the binding obligation between the two contracting parties, Her Majesty and the Native Chiefs of Now Zealand. There is no article for the Colonial Government to be seen in the treaty itself whatever. If there is one Treaty in the world that has the solemn sanction of a national compact, it is that entered into between the representatives of the British Crown and the leading Chiefs of both Islands, northern and southern. And it is tn be considered as the corner stone on which New Zealand Constitutions must be founded. It is equally clear that the said Treaty is the Maori Magna Charta, and as legal as that of the English one, made in the year 1,200, at the time of King John, and which is the keystone of English liberty, to redress their grievances. And, therefore, I, S. D. Taiwhanga, do declare, without fear, that I stand or fall upon the very principle of the above British and Maori Magna Chartas. For the sake of both races. 1 earnestly beg and pray that the Colonial Legislature of New Zealand will not administer by force on the Maoris any bad laws—namely, the Crown and Native Lands Rating Act, 1881, all unlawful Native Lands Acts from the year 1862 to thia year 1883, Rating, Dogs, Fisheries, Foreshores, or any unlawful laws affecting the Maori race from the year 1840 to this year 1883 (as all these Acts passed by the Colonial Legislature are quite contrary to both the British and New Zealand Constitutions) until our Maori grievances are redressed by Her Majesty the Queen of England like the British redressed their grievances by their Magna Charta in 1,200. God save the Queen,—l am, &c., S. D. Taiwhanga. Star Hotel, 23rd June, 1883.