Roger Childs: Book Review - Who Really Broke the Treaty?

This movement (kotahitanga /mana motuhake) to break up the country, moving towards a new form of ‘indigenous’ apartheid, is spearheaded by absurd claims of special rights supposedly set down in the Treaty of Waitangi, and false stories of harm done to Maori by colonization. John Robinson

The answer to the book’s title question has huge implications for New Zealand.

Mike Butler: Who really broke the treaty?

It wasn’t the Crown that repeatedly broke the Treaty of Waitangi, and $4.3-billion has been paid to “settle” grievances that had been fabricated, according to commentator Dr John Robinson.

Career scientist Robinson, who has authored a series of works on racism in New Zealand, puts a blowtorch on New Zealand’s treaty industry in his new book titled Who Really Broke the Treaty?

He has seen the inside of that industry, worked for it, and knows exactly how it functions.

You would be surprised at the scale of a massive scam that has been going on for nearly 50 years – in broad daylight, and funded by you.

John Robinson: On Kapiti Coast DC’s ideas for having a Maori ward

Opposed

I want to live in a community where I am the equal of my neighbours. Where we all belong because it is our land, and we are one people. Meeting together, debating together and voting together.

There is too much racial division in New Zealand. We should aim to reduce the differences, to remove them completely. Not to add more. This is what you propose, with the introduction of Maori wards in Kapiti. Since Maori are believed to be a race (the official definition is “a Maori is a member of the Maori race”), this is racism, the very opposite to the first principle of the United Nations (“all human beings are born free and equal”).

John Robinson: The road to New Zealand Apartheid

Second class citizens, subservient to a tribal elite

When one chosen few, one group, are dominant and take control and power, others are reduced, to become lesser citizens. New Zealand is that place, steaming down a road of division, divided by law into Maori (the ‘indigenous’) and the others. The great majority, lacking some drop of Maori blood, are second-class, subservient. That assumption of superiority is accompanied by the arrogance and bullying behaviour often found in upper classes.

There is no respect, no ‘aroha’, no belonging together; we are not one people.

The sense of belonging to a united, decent country is gone. There is nothing more precious to a people, and a nation, than the common belief of all that we are equal, that we each and everyone belong here, that this land is our land – along with all the commons, the lakes, rivers and beaches, the bush, the mountains and the sea. But that sense of belonging, which is essential to the good life – for us all, for every individual no matter what their background – has been stolen by an arrogant and greedy tribal minority.

John Robinson: Escaping the guilt trap: who really broke the Treaty

Three Waters and separate government: the elephant in the room

Many councils have spoken out against the Three Waters proposal, with most focussing on the high cost and the taking of ownership and control by a new centralised national organisation. The public organisation Democracy Action has spoken against the proposal, “since the undemocratic co-governance provisions will bring more complexity, more bureaucracy, more costs – and a whole lot less democratic accountability”. The Taxpayers’ Union has pointed to “the lies about ‘ownership’, the unsuccessful buy off of the local government sector, and the parliamentary skullduggery”.

There was considerable publicity when a group of law academics (professors and PhDs), publicised their opinion that the development of Three Waters raised constitutional concerns, because an entrenched privatisation provision (which was dropped following widespread condemnation) “creates a dangerous precedent”. That provision was a last-minute amendment that the Green Party had insisted on, supposedly in order to block possible future privatisation.

Rob Paterson: Regaining a nation; equality and democracy

This is yet another excellent effort by John Robinson, following on from his recent noteworthy books on culture and recent developments in New Zealand namely Dividing a Nation -The Return to Tikanga (2019) and He Puapua -Blueprint for Breaking up New Zealand (2021).

John Robinson is a prolific and respected writer/commentator on New Zealand History and associated issues and the standard of his work is as always of the highest calibre, well researched and properly referenced.

This book is for every Kiwi who is concerned about the welfare and future wellbeing of New Zealand as a functioning nation. It’s the country in which we live and of which we should all be very proud of our past achievements, heritage, fairness and equality.

John Robinson: A constitution enshrining racial apartheid in NZ is coming

There is a move afoot to rewrite the basic constitution of New Zealand, unsurprisingly to set in place racism and apartheid.

A meeting has been organised at The University of Auckland’s Business School this month to develop a new constitution. This is announced as a ‘Constitutional Conference Korero’, a national hui “to provide the technical and legal support for constitutional transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand — a ‘national wananga’ to bring together experts from around the world and within Aotearoa to present arguments and options for constitutional transformation to ‘realise Maori rights’.

This is a minority effort, excluding the majority of New Zealanders. It will cause considerable harm and deepen existing divisions between the two racial categories enshrined in existing law, overturning the belief in equality and implicit refusal of race-based separation. The country will be torn apart, as the process of writing a constitution is among the most wrenching any nation can go through, even a nation at peace. It brings every tension, rivalry, prejudice and latent grievance to the surface.

Roger Childs: ‘Regaining a Nation - equality and democracy’

It is … rare that someone who openly comes from the left side of the political spectrum, will produce historical analysis and conclusions that are so often in line with enlightened political views from the right. In this regard John’s books are treasures and serve to bring us politically closer together.” –Businessman, author and history researcher Andy Oakley

Another classic book from John Robinson

Mike Butler: How to regain our nation

There is a new madness afoot. A determined race-based minority within the Maori community is seizing control of the country while most others remain ill-informed unaware and uncaring. Such are the words of John Robinson in his new book Regaining a Nation – Equality and Democracy.

Robinson, who has a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and wrote Unrestrained Slaughter: The Maori Musket Wars 1800-1840, The Kingite Rebellion, Dividing a Nation: the return to tikanga, and He Puapua – Blueprint for breaking up New Zealand, gives insight as a scientist who did research for New Zealand government entities.

John Robinson: More division, more power to tangata whenua

We have all received a notice about “Proposed Plan Change 2 to the Operative Kapiti Coast District Plan 2021”. This includes a seemingly innocuous proposal to “provide for tangata whenua to develop papakainga housing developments”. This includes papakainga on ‘general title land’.

Here the select group, the tangata whenua, are members of Ngati Toa, Ngati Raukawa (Nga Hapu o Otaki) and Te Atiawa. IPI, page 58, online here

Roger Childs: ‘The Kohimarama Conference 1860’

When the Governor came here, he brought with him the Word of God by which we live; and it is, through the teaching of that Word, that we are able to meet together this day, under one roof. Therefore, I say, I know no Sovereign but the Queen, and I never shall know any other. I am walking by the side of the Pakeha. – Distinguished Ngapuhi chief, Tamati Waka Nene

In recent times Waikanae-based Dr John Robinson has been writing a book a year, often on topics that other better-known historians have avoided.

John Robinson, however, is prepared to boldly and honestly take on some of the tougher topics of New Zealand history and politics such as the truth about the Treaty of Waitangi, tikanga in the modern era, Unrestrained Slaughter on the inter-tribal wars and He Puapua on the Maori elites program for co-governance. His latest book is on the important Kohimarama Conference where 162 years ago more than 100 chiefs endorsed their support for the colonial government and the changes it was implementing.

Mike Butler: Hidden slaughter revealed

Unrestrained slaughter – The Maori Musket Wars 1800-1840 is a brief account of a gruesome chapter in New Zealand history in which Maori killed about one third of their people.

Maori tribes have a long history of fighting each other since they arrived in New Zealand around 1250AD. Each new influx of arrivals from the islands found numerous people living here, many of whom were killed so that the newcomers could take over.

In Maori society, there were many reasons to take up arms. Tribes needed to hold on to their land and food resources so had to repel attacks. Young men were trained for war and lived to establish a reputation by success on the battlefield.

Mike Butler: Tikanga weaponised

“Tikanga”, which is generally defined as “Maori custom”, is being introduced in New Zealand, setting behaviour rules for everyone not just of part-Maoris, and there is no clear outline of what it entails, according to retired scientist John Robinson.

Dividing a Nation – the return to tikanga, chronicles tikanga back to the beginning of Polynesian migration to New Zealand and shows that modern tikanga is being used as a political weapon that creates racial discord.

As a scientist, Robinson was alarmed at absurd demands of the Royal Society of New Zealand for “matauranga Maori”, or “the Maori way of thinking” to be used as the basis for scientific work in New Zealand.

Mike Butler: Gate Pa and the need to look ahead

Gate Pa and Te Ranga – the full story seeks to put fighting that took place in Tauranga in 1864 within a wide historical narrative that includes Maori history back 360 years, the impact of British settlement in the 19th century, and the reaction to that settlement.

The Battle of Gate Pa on April 29, 1864, has been described as a humiliating defeat for the British although the Battle of Te Ranga seven weeks later resulted in Maori defenders being routed and their commander killed.

At Gate Pa, 31 Government troops were killed and 80 wounded despite vastly outnumbering the rebels. At Te Ranga, more than 80 rebels were killed or fatally wounded. The book corrects a few myths:

John Robinson: Open Letter To The Treaty Minister

To Andrew Little: Minister for Treaty Settlements

I have worked on gathering information on Treaty issues, as a consultant for the Treaty of Waitangi Unit at the Department of Justice, and with the Victoria University treaty of Waitangi Research Unit in projects for the Crown Forestry Rental Trust.

John Robinson: Maori rebellion and New Zealand wars

The call for a national day to mark the New Zealand wars has been backed by claims that the wars of rebellion against the national government were land wars, which “left much of the country's indigenous population battered and bloodied, and facing the prospect of dying out altogether within a few generations.”

This is quite false.  The reason for the Maori population decrease of the nineteenth century is clear from the data – there were too few young, too few women, following the disruption and killing of the intertribal wars that preceded the Treaty. 

John Robinson: Killing rewards rubber stamped

A truly bizarre Treaty settlement Bill which is moving inexorably through parliament provides Wellington region tribe Ngati Toa with a wide range of special powers, holding reserves in fee simple, granting of governance arrangements with 11 councils giving special involvement with planning and control of large swathes of the coast.

One “redress instrument” is the right to apply a nga paihau or an overlay classification that “acknowledges the traditional, cultural, spiritual and historical association of an iwi with certain sites of significance”, and thus to set out limitations for access and use by others.

Mike Butler: Its biculturalism as usual at TPK

Governments with their different policies come and go but policies that further partnership, protection, consultation, and compensation for Maori continue. Why? Much responsibility for the exponential growth of biculturalism can be traced to the government’s Maori department, Te Puni Kokiri, and its "policy wahanga".

The "policy wahanga" aims to improve “citizenship outcomes for Maori in key social and economic domains through whanau-centred approaches; and on the ongoing Treaty of Waitangi based partnership relationships between the Crown and hapu and iwi”, according to the Te Puni Kokiri website. (1)

Mike Butler: Dodgy deals and the twisted treaty

Did John Key do a deal with the Maori Party involving repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004 before the 2008 election and not breathe a word of it during the campaign? Part of one chapter in Twisting the treaty – a tribal grab for wealth and power, published last week, says just that.

Mike Butler: Freethinker faults treaty fictions

The somewhat bland title “When two cultures meet, the New Zealand experience” camouflages a book that rips apart the treaty orthodoxy that has fuddled governments for the past 30 years, and points a finger at an array of celebrated academics who have dressed up their beliefs as fact, either out of evangelical zeal or for financial benefit.

Author John Robinson, a former university lecturer and research scientist with an MSc degree in maths and physics from Auckland University, and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, knows all about the findings-falsification business because he worked for the government for 16 years, from 1986 to 2002, crunching numbers concerning Maori life expectancy, infant mortality, health, education, offending, imprisonment.