Page 15 - Puhipi

grew; and anyway a fort on a hill in the age of the musket was not the stronghold it

had once been. The Maori became susceptible to the new diseases the Europeans had
bought, and died in their hundreds. Strong drink also ravaged the once healthy people.
To confuse the Maori further, religious controversy was wished upon him.

In 1832 the first Wesleyan missionaries arrived and in 1838 a French Catholic mission

was set up. And all the while the land hungry British were buying or purporting to buy
vast areas in many parts of the country at prices absurdly under their true value. Into
the disorder that was Aotearoa, in 1833 came the British Resident, James Busby, the

man who was instructed to maintain order but who was given no power to do so.

In 1835 under his influence, 35 chiefs signed a Declaration of Independence, declaring
themselves heads of a sovereign state. In 1837 he came up with another plan, a treaty
with Britain by which Aotearoa would remain a sovereign Maori state under British

protection. The plan was not adopted.

In Aotearoa the missionaries with the interests of the Maori at heart wanted British

law and order but not colonisation. At length in 1839, Captain William Hobson an
officer of the Royal Navy was issued with instructions to confer with the Maori for
the recognition of Queen Victorias authority over the country. He had specific orders
to deal fairly with the Maori to guard their welfare and to guarantee their rights, it
was a new concept in dealing with native peoples and one for which history must give

credit to Britain. Thus in February 1840, Hobson came to Waitangi in the Bay of
Islands with a proposition conceived in justice and dedicated to the new ideal of
honourable dealing with a primitive but intelligent race.

Hobson met the Maori chiefs of the north at the British residency, that fine colonial
type building which protected by the New Zealand Government, still stands at the
head of its wide expanse of lawn looking over the bay. The discussions were held in a
great tent erected by sailors in front of the house and there the treaty on which the

foundations of the state were laid and read translated and explained.

The Treaty of Waitangi is not a long document, the first section states the benevolent
intentions of the Crown and defines Hobsons rights, then follow three articles.

The first says the chiefs cede to the Queen the rights and powers of sovereignty over
their respective territories. In the second the Queen guarantees to the chiefs and tribes
full, exclusive and undisturbed possessions of their lands, estates, forests, fisheries and

other properties but the Queen has the exclusive right to buy land. The third article
simply says “In consideration thereof, her majesty the Queen of England extends to the
natives of Aotearoa her royal protections and imparts to them all rights and privileges
of British subjects”.