Waitangi— Treaty Site Should Be Matron’s Property

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 80, 25 June 1927, Page 24

Waitangi— Treaty Site Should Be Matron’s Property

K=jN order to get right down | to fundamentals in the | sp history of our country j I it is necessary to go fj back to 1533 at the lat-S-J est. On the sth day of May of that year, Mr. James Busby, who had been appointed British Resident in New Zealand, arrived at the Bay of Islands. He acquired a large tract of land, opposite Kororareka (Russell), and lying between the Waitangi River and Keri-

keri Inlet. Here he established the British Residency, and called his property “Victoria,” and the property is known by that name to this day. From the Residency, which was virtually our first Government House, Mr. Busby controlled, to the best of his very limited powers, all that amounted to British government, from 1833 to 1840.

On January 29, IS4O, Captain Hobson, the first Governor-General of New Zealand, arrived in H.M.S. Herald, and found the Union Jack flying bravely at Victoria. He was met by Mr. Busby, and the following day publiely read his commissions, from her Majesty, and issued his proclamation. January 29 has for years been a public holiday in Auckland Province, to commemorate its founding, but it would seem, from the historical records, that the day most deserving of commemoration is February 6, IS4O. Captain Hobson’s next step was to arrange with Mr. Colenso, of Paihia. for the printing of a number of circular letters from Mr. Busby to file native chiefs inviting them to meet him at Victoria on the following Wednesday. Considerable difficulty was experienced in drafting the treaty to be submitted to the Maoris on February 5, and Mr. Busby, being well versed in the subtleties of Maori character, finally undertook its preparation. Mr. Henry Williams, chairman of the Church Missionary Society, interpreted the treaty, and to these two gentlemen belongs the credit of providing a document that has withstood repeated attacks by the ablest Maori and other legal minds. The interpretation has been referred to as a perfect native reflex of the European mind. On February 5, 1840, that memorable Wednesday, countless canoes were seen speeding from all directions to Waitangi. Some had arrived the day before, and probably 1,000 Maoris assembled for the meeting. Quoting from “The Treaty of Waitangi,” by T. Lindsay Buick: “The scene of the conference the chiefs was the lawn in front of Mr. Busby’s house, which stands upon a gently sloping promontory, directly opposite the old town of Kororakeka. A large and commodious building with its French casements, cedar doors and oldfashioned fittings, it looks out across the bay from the seclusion of its plantation of imported trees. Down between the house and the sea beach, there runs a grasy slope at the termination of wjiich rises a group of beautiful pohutukawa, which had just shed their blaze of Christmas bloom when Captain Hobson arrived. To the right flow the tidal waters of the Waitangi River, whose falls, beyond its mouth, have given their name to the district. Upon the flat that fringes the river-bank, the Maoris camped among the cabbage palms, and the smoke of their fires might have been seen curling upwards until it was lost in the morning air. Still further to the right, across the river, under the forest clad hill nestled the little Mission Station of Paihia, where Mr. Colenso was industriously producing copies of the New Testament from his primitive printing press. Away to the left, in Oihi Bay, stands the cross marking the spot where the first Christian sermon was preached to the Maoris, by Samuel Marsden, on Christmas Day, 1814, and between these two points where they had first

(Written for THE SUN by “TE RANGI")

received the written and stw,v„ I Word, the natives were now aakSi*. decide a question that very l»r~ involved their political Salvador/--The Treaty of Waitangi provhLrf firstly, for the absolute cessio™ w?S* out reservation by the chiefs to W Majesty, of all their rights or posed rights of sovereignty; secondly for the confirmation and guarantee hV her Majesty to the chiefs, tribes and residents of New Zealand, of the w* session of their lands and esta'es

forests, fisheries and other propertiei so long as they desired to retain them in their possession and, thirdly (aid lastly) for the accordance to tie Maoris of British protection and tile rights of British subjects.

Captain Hobson conducted the negotiations with complete impartiality and British justice, and, after explanation of the full meaning and text of the treaty, adjourned the meeting till the following Friday, in order to give the Maoris one clear day to consider the matter. Shortage of food resulted in the Maoris asking to be allowed to sign and get away on the following day. Thus on February 6. 1840, at Victoria, the Maoris, headed by Hone Heke, the first signatory, signed the Treaty of Waitangi, and created New Zealand a part of the British Empire.

To appreciate the full significance of this, we must delve a little into international law. Discovery of an uninhabited island and the actual taking possession thereof, in the name of the Crown, entitles the Crown to exercise sovereignty thereover. If, however, the island is inhabited and any form of government exists, no rights of sovereignty accrue, to the discovering nation, bat only the first right of colonisation if it so acts w-ithin a reasonable time. Abel Tasman first discovered New Zealand, and 135 years elapsed before Captain Cook landed. Considerable time again elapsed and considerable recrimination took place it. England, concerning the acceptance of the responsibility of further extension of the British Empire, resulting in the passing of a direct Act and Ordinance, repudiating British claims to New Zealand. In 1840 therefore, the only two alternatives left were, either to acquire the country by conquest with all its attendant loss of blood and prestige, or, to acquire it by honourable negotiation with the Maoris. The Treaty of Waitangi thus is outstanding in New Zealand's history. Its signing was the foundation of British rule, British possession and British sovereignty. But for the negotiations at Waitangi, our constitution, our Government, our all, would be void. Why, then does Victoria remain private property ? Why has so sacred a spot to be alienated from the people of New Zealand so long? Some2,oW odd acres of Victoria, including the spot where the treaty was signed, and the frontage to beautiful Waitangi Bay and River, right up to and including the falls, still remains intact, but is private property andthe public are dependent on the hospitality of the owner to visit it. The Government has seen fit to create national parks at Ruapehu, at Mount Cook, and even in our Titiranp Ranges, for what —for the pleasure of the people. Surely, then, the fundamental importance to our country of the happenings there, and the racrredness of the link it forges with British traditions, British sovereignty in New Zealand, and our birth as a nation, demands the acquisition of Victoria as a national park, for the people. The only thing done to commemorate our establishment, save only the erection of a monument which is not on Victoria at all, was the planting of a tree on the spot where the treaty was signed, and even the tree is private property! WAITANGI.