QUESTION OF VALIDITY

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21583, 20 November 1941, Page 2

QUESTION OF VALIDITY

TREATY OF WAITANGI METHODIST PETITION RECALLED (Special to Times) TE AROHA, Thursday The suggestion that many of the Maori people were not satisfied regarding the validity of the Treaty of Waitangi from a legal standpoint was made at Wednesday's session of the South Auckland Methodist District Synod, at Te Arona. during consideration of a report from the Home and Maori Mission Department of the Dominion Church. Reference was made during the discussion to the petition, following the Methodist Conference, of 1940. to have a summary of the main provisions of the Treaty placed on the Statute Book, and to the finding of the Privy Council that a treaty became enforceable as part of the domestic law of a country only if and when it was made so. It was stated that the Government had not replied officially to the petition and that a further letter had u 2en sent. The report of the Home and Maori mission department of the church stated that the matter would remain a perpetual source of concern to the Maori people until it was properly clarified. Disagreement with the suggested incorporation of the Treaty in the Statute Book was expressed by Mr Elliott, Te Kuiti, who said the church should be careful not to give the impression that the New Zealand Government did not regard the Treaty as valid. The Rev. Mahariah Winiata, of Kawhia, said that events had made it obyious that the Maoris did not now regard the Treaty as valid. It was very desirable, in the interests of the Maori people, that the position should be clarified. Mr J. B. Beeche, Waihi, said that as matters now stood the provisions of the Treaty were virtually incorporated in existing enactments, practically the only exception, so far as land questions were concerned, being those instances where land had been ceded by the Maori people to the Crown, or had been the subject of proclamation for other purposes. Synod adopted the report of the Home and Maori Mission Committee, including the statement referring to the Treaty.