John Robinson: The Treaty of Waitangi, 1840 and 2023

The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on 1840 marked the beginning of the formation of the modern nation of New Zealand.  Prior to that, these islands were home to Polynesians, now known as Maori, living in many separated tribes with a primitive culture.

In Maori society loyalty was to the tribe, and, in the absence of any central overall authority, conflict resolution was by armed might, by fighting – with widespread killing, cannibalism and slavery.  The coming of muskets, and the growing familiarity with other parts of the country (due to travel on British vessels and in long-distance war-parties) resulted in an explosion of war, and the Maori population declined by close to one-half in the first forty years of the nineteenth century.

Barrie Davis: The Doctrine of Discovery Essay

In recent years, a previously little-known principle called the Doctrine of Discovery from the Age of Discovery has been added to Maori grievances. 

It is said the Doctrine originated in 15^th century papal bulls, that it is present in New Zealand law and that it must be removed. 

In particular, the recent Maranga Mai! report claims New Zealand was colonized under the authority of the Doctrine, that the Doctrine was a factor to the impact of colonization on Maoris, and that rejecting the constitutional application of the Doctrine is central to establishing co-governance.

Bruce Moon: The truth must be told again!

When Hobson arrived in New Zealand on 29^th January 1840, equipped with a 4200-word brief from Colonial Secretary Lord Normanby, he knew what he had to do.  If the Maori chiefs wanted the protection of the Queen they had one choice: to sign a document ceding all their rights of sovereignty, whatever they were, to the Queen.  

As Hobson took pains to explain to them in due course: “as the law of England gives no civil powers to Her Majesty out of her  dominions, her efforts to do you good will be futile unless you consent.”[1] Moreover, all Maoris were to be offered in due course by Article Third of the Treaty, all the rights and duties of the people of England; remarkable for its generosity in its day.  

Yet today we have Jacinta Ruru and Jacobi Kohu-Morris of the University of Otago talking of[2]  “concept(s) .. imposed over the top of existing indigenous nations and legal systems”, an extraordinary extrapolation from the actual articles of the treaty. The sheer absurdity of this sort of statement in the New Zealand context must surely be obvious to everybody except of course those who are determined not to see.  There was neither nation nor legal system nor anything indigenous in anything Maori.  They were a collection of independent tribes often in brutal conflict with each other.

Henry Armstrong: How to Unmake and Remake New Zealand History

Introduction

This essay has been initiated regarding the concerns of  a group of New Zealand academics, teachers, historians and commentators, many of whom have held prestigious positions in relaying our history to generations of young New Zealanders, over many years. They are concerned that the history of our nation is presented to our young people in a comprehensive, truthful, unbiased and informative manner. Their aim is that a truthful presentation of New Zealand history is delivered in our schools from 2022, the date whereby a revised School Histories Curriculum prepared by the Ministry of Education, is to be taught.

The Ministry proposed a revised curriculum in early 2021, calling for submissions by 31 May. The result of over 5000 submissions on the draft reveals virtually no changes from the initial proposals. It is clear that a politically-focused curriculum is to be delivered in which untruths, distorted descriptions of recorded events and biased interpretations of the past will now be included.

Bruce Moon: Real History – a land sale in the good old times

There are many part-Maoris[i] who bleat about their “loss” of land, today worth billions but worth little more than a song or a ‘fig’ of tobacco when their ancestors eagerly sold most of it to the wicked white colonials.  There could hardly be a more realistic account of this process than that of Irishman, Frederick Edward Maning, the self-styled “Pakeha Maori” who arrived in the Hokianga in 1833, a twenty-one-year-old in search of adventure and the prospect of “making good”.

Maning recorded it all in his lively text, “Old New Zealand, A Tale of the Good Old Times”, 1863, an extract from which, Chapter V, pp 77-80, is the following:

I now purchased a piece of land. ... I really can’t tell to the present day who I purchased it from, for there were about fifty different claimants, every one of whom assured me that the other forty-nine were “humbugs,” and had no right whatever.