Issues With The Treaty of Waitangi
What Was Wrong With Signing The Treaty?
What is The Treaty Of Waitangi?
The Treaty of Waitangi is the founding document of New Zealand. It was signed in 1840 in the Bay of Islands. It was an agreement between the British Crown and the Maori iwi of New Zealand.
Problems With the treaty:
The first article in the Treaty of Waitangi in the Maori version. The missionaries had made up the word 'Kawanatanga', which meant governorship. It was meant to mean that the chiefs still had control. In the English version it uses the word 'sovereignty' which meant that the main authority would now be with the British Crown, not the chiefs.
In the second article of the Treaty, it said that the Maori iwi would keep the right to rule and make decisions about their own tribal land and all of its possessions. The English thought that the word taonga just meant property and possessions. They thought the English had the sole right to buy land and therefore they could set the price.
In the third article of the treaty, in the Maori version it said that the British would just settle the conflicts of the British people but it said in the English version that the British settlers would be bringing all of their social systems like law from England as this was now a British colony.