Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate & Northland Age 20/12/19)
A Northern Advocate letter to the Editor (17/12/19) prattles on about the chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi: “There could be no more question of them giving up this mana than the Queen giving up hers.” - It appears that author is unaware of the letter sent by chiefs to King William the IV in 1831 begging the Brits for protection mainly from the French – difficult to see mana in that cry for help.
His letter also implies that the chiefs in signing the treaty were entering into an equal Crown/Maori partnership: “That is what the original Treaty partners believed.” - here again his misinformation is astonishing as one only has to read the chief’s speeches prior to signing the TOW to see that they knew full well that they would not be equal partners or indeed any measure of a partner.
A sample of the chief’s speeches from Colenso’s records: Te Kemara - “No, no, no; I shall never say 'Yes' to your staying. Were all to be on an equality, then, perhaps, Te Kemara would say, ' Yes; ' but for the Governor to be up and Te Kemara down -Governor high up, up, up, and Te Kemara down low, small, a worm, a crawler -no, no, no.” Yet he signed
Tareha - If all were to be alike, all equal in rank with thee -but thou, the Governor up high up, up, as this tall paddle " (here he held up a common canoe paddle), "and I down, under, beneath! No, no, no.”
Hoani Heke - “Thou to go away! No, no, no! For then the French people or the rum-sellers will have us Natives. Remain, remain;..... Sit, I say, Governor, sit! a father, a Governor for us."
Tamati Waka Nene - “Do not thou go away from us; remain for us -a father, a judge, a peacemaker. “ Signed
Patuone - “ Remain here with us, to be a father for us, that the French have us not, that Pikopo, that bad man, have us not.“
Tamati Pukututu - "This is mine to thee, O Governor! Sit, Governor, sit, a Governor for us -for me, for all”
Warerahi - “We will have this man as our Governor.”
Rewa (although he signed) later said - “Send the man away; do not sign the paper; if you do, you will be reduced to the condition of slaves”
The letter then alludes to the TOW as our founding document. The TOW is about chiefs ceding sovereignty in return for rights as British subjects and all the treaty actually says is that the Queen is sovereign and Maori are her subjects, with the rights of subjects, including possession of property.
If a constitution is a set of fundamental principles or established precedents according to which a state or other organization is governed, thus constituting what the entity is, the November 16, 1840, Royal Charter is the first statement on how the governance of New Zealand was to be organised. This has to be our founding document.
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 12/12/19)
IGNORANCE AND ARROGANCE THAT ALLOWS US TO FORGET
Taika Waititi’s comment at the premiere of Jojo Rabbit about why Hitler came to power (NZ Herald - Our Heroes 2019 12/12/19) perfectly encapsulated our current state. Totalitarianism could so easily happen here. Yes here, in sweet little NZ. Our democracy is being undermined daily. Too many good Kiwis want to be ‘nice’. They don’t want to create waves, or prefer to believe the propaganda, or simply look the other way when the facts are discomforting. A quiet life in the short term is certainly more relaxing than it’d be if we consistently stood up for what is right, but we are creating a hell of a political and bureaucratic mess for future generations to clean up.
Of course, it would help significantly if the mass media would publish both sides (facts as well as opinions) or better yet, the actual facts about the important developments that are sneaking around under the radar. And on that note……… the ODT needs to allow Tremain to do his job of highlighting our foibles. (see attached cartoon) - tremain under the bus
FIONA MACKENZIE, Whangaparaoa
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 8/12/19)
The Maori Text which is the true Treaty says very clearly “All the people of New Zealand while the words for Forest and Fisheries are not in the Maori text and yet The Waitangi Tribunal is full of our country’s most fluent Maori speakers and they can’t even read the text properly.
The Government could end the confusion if they wished, but they would have to reverse almost every claim which involved forest and fisheries and immediately all claims for water, wind, radio waves, etc would be overturned as the word “Taonga” means “Property procured by the spear’ and not “treasure” as used by the Waitangi tribunal. But our governments won’t change it as it would destroy all the treaty claims both Labour and National are hell bent on deceiving the people.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate 28/11/19)
GM Tinker's statement (25/11/19) that: 'His Royal Highness, in his speech, constantly referred to The Crown and Tangata Whenua as being "Treaty partners" is a gross perversion of the truth and all too typical of the many treaty-twisters in our midst. The Prince referred to a ‘partnership’ between two peoples (dubious enough in itself) but made no reference to ‘a Crown/Maori partnership’ in his speech at Waitangi.
The Prince also referred to Apirana Ngata 1940: “....treaty partners’ standing together...”. Yet in 1922 Ngata said - “If you think these things are wrong, then blame your ancestors who gave away their rights when they were strong”.
I challenge Mr Tinker to find the words ‘partner’ or ‘partnership’ in either Te Tiriti or Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated the 16 November 1840 (the latter our true founding document).
The Treaty did not create a Crown/Maori partnership. Even in the big 1987 case, the Court of Appeal used the word partners interchangeably with the word parties, and spoke also of a relationship ‘AKIN to’ a partnership. In a later case even Cooke P made it quite plain that not even all real genuine partnerships ~ which this was not ~ are ones of equals. It is constitutionally impossible for a subject to be the partner of the Crown. The entire gist of the Treaty is of the recognition of the Crown’s sovereignty.
GEOFF PARKER, Kamo
Dear Ed, (Sent to the NZ Listener 19/11/19)
The first sentence of your editorial 9/11 contained the following. “Capt. James Cook, who brought the first cats to NZ”
Are you inferring that Cook merely had cats aboard his ship, or are you inferring that he liberated cats onto NZ soil.?
If the former, you are being mischievous, and if the latter it is news to me despite attempts to confirm your statement.
Wikipedia has a very similar vague sentence, but I could find no other sources.
If your inference is correct then I would appreciate more details, such as.
Which of Cook’s three voyages, where were cats liberated, were they liberated deliberately, what were their sexes, did they survive and breed?
While it is fashionable to denigrate Cook, and all he stood for, can we stick to proven facts please.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 13/11/19)
Re Murray Crawford letter November 12 about early settlers is right there were people here well before Maori arrived There were Ngati Hotu/ Celts Patupaiarehe, Kapupungapunga, Tureha, Moriori Waitaha, there were about 500-1000 Waitaha people living in Wanganui according to a Waitaha Paramount Chief. Most of these people, there ancestors are still living in New Zealand now.
One group of people were banished here in 1120AD by King Alexander 1st of Scotland as the record goes. The real meaning of the word Tangata Whenua is the (ancient ones ) or (the people before us) this was later changed to mean Maori.
The story about the banishment is to long for the paper to print.
IAN BROUGHAM, Tawhero
Dear Sir, (Sent to the Northland Age 5/11/19)
It is stated, the settlement package with Moriori includes a total value of $18 million in financial redress and the transfer of sites of significance to Moriori as cultural redress.
Tangata Maori become British Subjects after they signed the Treaty and if a British Subject commits a crime they are punished by the Crown, but the Crown does not pay the victim’s compensation, compensation is paid by the person/group who committed the crime. Why are Taranaki Maori any different?
This was the Queen’s law that tangata Maori agreed to when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi, and the law they acknowledged at the Kohimarama Conference 20 years later.
Taranaki, as any other group/person who breaks the law is responsible for their actions, not the Crown or the taxpayers.
Whether it was at the time or 20 years later, the Crown did not commit the crime and had enough problems in New Zealand without immediately addressing problems in the Chatham Islands. The Crown acted when it could and must hold Taranaki responsible for their despicable crimes. See “Moriori” by Michael King.
Why are the taxpayers of New Zealand paying Taranaki Maori’s compensation for slaughtering Moriori men, women and children in 1835, then farming them “like swine” into virtual extinction?
ROSS BAKER. Researcher, One New Zealand Foundation Inc.
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Taranaki Daily News 30/10/19)
Parikaha as a settlement was however, founded by a part-Maori gold miner, Daniel Ellison, a,k,a, Raiera Erihana, who made almost a million pounds at the Dunstan diggings in Central Otago. Ellison married the granddaughter of Ngai Tahu chief Taiaroa in 1861, according to Ngai Tahu historian Jean Jackson. He encouraged squatters to settle at Parihaka, and sunk his money into it. Jackson remarks ‘Untill the 1860’s it seems there was no Parihaka, the village often misrepresented, built near New Plymouth. The settlement was largesse from Raniera Erihana or Daniel Ellison.
Taranaki Herald reported that Parihaka was infected by vermin for lack of cleanliness and by overcrowding, that it was absolutely filthy through lack of sanitary precautions, and an outbreak of pestilence was feared that summer. The Maori of surrounding communities had neglected their own affairs, and spent much of the time in Parihaka due to the frequency of the gatherings.
According to Jean Jackson, a Botanist who has studied the use of plants by Maori, Parihaka women were put to work making corn liquor, and she suspects that Te Whiti kept his followers drugged.
Since the earliest days of Pakeha settlement, of chiefs giving their wahine over to prostitution, a plausible explanation in the case of Parihaka, given its history as a centre of contagion, and of Te Whiti’s interest in profiting from his followers by seemingly every means of venereal disease among the Maori prior to 1939 was at best anecdotal.
There were weapons stocked at Parihaka, and a significant proportion of those with violent temperaments, including honoured murderers such as Hiroki, and Titokowaru with his cannibal band.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 21/10/19)
COLONIALISM
Regarding this series on confronting colonialism, what happened to No to hate speech, this is disgusting.
This is so one sided and disrespectful to Cook who Was an Explorer not a Colonist!
No mention of all the killing done by Maori and to their own people, killing and eating their own, infanticide etc.
Colonialism was inevitable and may have been by any other country.
No one mentions the good that became of it all, a lovely developed country!
C HUMPHREYS, Katikati
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 5/10/19)
Some facts. On 8th October, 1769, Captain Cook, Joseph Banks and some others landed at the mouth of the Turanganui river (Gisborne). They saw some natives on the other side so they crossed over in the yawl to make their acquaintance.
While Cook and his men were walking inland, four natives armed with long sticks rushed out of the wood and tried to seize the yawl.
The sailors who were guarding it sailed a few yards out to sea but the natives chased it until the officer in charge of another of the Endeavour’s small boats fired a couple of muskets over their heads to frighten them off. They took no notice and became even more aggressive.
In Cook’s words, “One of them, lifting up his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece [
from the musket ] was fired which shot him dead.” The man’s companions stopped dead in their tracks in surprise as these Stone Age people had not seen gunfire before –only fighting with stones clubs and spears.
The next morning Cook made another attempt to establish relations with the natives as he wanted to obtain fresh water and to trade some of his goods for vegetables.
Cook gave them iron and beads but they wanted the guns that Cook’s men were carrying for protection and they made several attempts to snatch them out of the hands of the sailors. One of them grabbed a sword from the astronomer. Armed with spears and war clubs made of hard greenstone “the rest now began to be extremely insolent”, wrote Cook in his journal.
The man who stole the sword refused to return it and was shot dead. Cook and his men returned to the Endeavour, disappointed at their hostile reception.
The British then encountered two canoes in the bay. The native canoeists began to fight with the sailors in the Endeavour’s small boat and, in the ensuing chaos, four of the canoeists were killed by musket shots.
Everywhere else Cook went in the Pacific on 3 voyages lasting in total for 10 years he was welcome by the natives. It was only in Gisborne that he met with a hostile reception.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate 2/10/19)
Our Governor Generals over the years have a lot to answer for and must be held accountable for acknowledging the Treaty of Waitangi as our Founding Document over the Royal Charter/Letters Patent of 1839 and 1840. Queen Victoria’s royal charter of 1839 gave sovereignty of New Zealand to Britain and Her Royal Charter of 1840 made New Zealand into a British Colony with a Governor and Constitution to set up our political, Legal and justice systerns under one flag and one law, irrespective of race, colour or creed. This was acknowledged by all the chiefs who attended the Kohimarama Conference in 1860.
Both these Charters were issued by “Victoria by the Grace of God” under, “The Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”. The Treaty of Waitangi was not issued by “Victoria by the Grace of God under, “The Great seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”.
Our Governor Generals represent the Monarchy, the Head of State and therefore, must honour the instructions issued by Queen Victoria under the “The Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”. Not a vague, primitive document drafted by Lt. Governor Hobson, that only asked tangata Maori to give up their kawanatanga/government to Queen Victoria in return for protection and the same rights as the people of England/New Zealand.
ROSS BAKER, Researcher, one new Zealand Foundation Inc.
Dear Ed, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 24/9/19)
Your correspondent refers to “only 39 chiefs signing the English version of the Treaty.”
Had Mr. Fore done any research he would know the reason why that version of the Treaty was used.
About a month after the Treaty of Waitangi signing Rev. Maunsell invited Maaori south of the Manukau harbour to a gathering at his mission station at Port Waikato.
About 1500 attended, including the Waikato Chief Te Wherowhero.
Maunsell had been promised a copy of the Maaori version of the Treaty would be couriered to him, but it did not arrive on time so he improvised by using a copy of the “Freeman” English version.
It is very well documented that those present were well aware of the meaning of the document they were asked to sign.
32 mainly Waikato/Tainui Maaori signed on the day, and further 7 a few days later at Waiuku.
That signing of 32 chiefs was third largest of all.
The language on the paper did not diminish the significance of the event.
Sorry Mr. Fore, there is nothing sinister to be found.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 22/9/19)
Re Article Saturday September 21, the ‘h’ debate a decade on.
It’s been 10 years since the Wanganui District Council deceived the people of Wanganui.
The information that I sent to the council stating the spelling of Wanganui was correct without the ‘h’ was right as the name belonged to the Waitaha people. the same as the spelling in the South Island where other tribes of Waitaha live.
They were here over three hundred years before the arrival of Maori. According to what the Waitaha paramount chief told me.
Mayor McDouall was one of the councillors at the time supported having an ‘h’ in Whanganui. John Maihi stated it was important to change to the Whanganui. Spelling because that was is the name that means something.
Both McDouall and Maihi weren’t alive when the Waitaha people were here so they both don’t know what they are talking about.
The people who put the ‘h’ in Wanganui have turned against one of their ancestors. It’s no wonder we have separatism in our country.
McDouall said it was important to embrace names used by different cultures, but he refuses to embrace the Waitaha cultures.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 20/9/19)
You do readers no service by printing fake history of the Treaty of Waitangi such as that if M.J.Fore (“Chronicle”’ 20/9/19)
Here is the Truth.
There was only ever one genuine treaty – in the Ngapuhi dialect of Maori, signed by about 500 chiefs. Fore states falsely that it “only gave governorship and partnership, not sovereignty”’ The actual treaty in Maori, was a precise translation of Hobson’s draft of 4th February and it is clear from the chiefs recorded statements at Waitangi and elsewhere that they understood that they would cede sovereignty by signing – “Kawanatanga” was the translation of “sovereignty” that all understood. “Partnership’ is a fake modern invention. A major reason why they signed was to get British protection from the French.
By the real treaty (in Maori) ALL the people of New Zealand were assured of possession of their villages. Lands and ordinary property (“taonga” - NOT :treasure which is only a subsequent meaning of the word).
The chiefs only retained their chieftainship insofar as it was compatible with the rights of everybody else as British subjects. Nowhere will Mr Fore find “Aotearoa” in the Treaty – it was only a seldom-used name for the North Island – of which there were several.
The so-called “treaty in English “ was only used for an overflow of signatures at Waikato Heads. It is another fake, written by Hobson’s secretary Freeman to send what he thought should be said to dignitaries overseas. Neither Mr Fore nor anybody else of his kind ever asks why this oddity was ever signed at all.
But alas I fear very much that some sort of fake history such as Mr Fore espouses will be taught in our schools by officialdom which does not want the honest truth to be known.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor (Sent to the NZ Herald 18/9/19)
Our political leaders regular refer to NZ being a democracy, but this is increasingly becoming a misnomer. Auckland Council allows two unelected, unaccountable tribal appointees voting on critical issues alongside elected Councillors on all Committees, and we have a mix of elected Councillors and tribal appointees governing many of our public spaces and resources, including the Hauraki Gulf. Other councils around the country have followed suit.
Now I see in the Council’s Auckland Plan 2050, that “Political structures will evolve within Auckland as the model of co-governance is refined and te Tiriti settlements call for new arrangements.”
Perhaps I have missed something. Has there been any public consultation and referendum on us changing from a democracy to a race-based form of government? Or is NZ just another failing state, slowly evolving into a Kleptocracy? We already seem to be a Kakistocracy.
FIONA MACKENZIE, Whangaparaoa
Dear Ed, (Sent to the Waikato Times 16/9/19)
I have always been a strong supporter of NZ history being a core subject in NZ schools, it certainly was in my day as part of primary school Social Studies.
Unfortunately I have zero belief that today the subject can be truthfully taught. The past 30 years has seen a constant barrage, by historians, media and educators to belittle all things colonial and promote all things Maori as virtuous.
Much of that barrage has been by way of exaggeration and outright lies.
An example is in the “Opinion. Tom O’ Connor” column of your Saturday edition 14/9.
Tom refers to the girls from Otorohanga and the Commemoration of the NZ Land Wars. The very simple fact is the legislation refers to the NZ Wars, Land is not in its title, which covered a period from 1843 to 1872.
Only a few days ago a plaque was installed in Parliament that confirms the wording.
Most of the battles referred to over that period resulted from Sovereignty disputes and were not land related. Loss of land was sometimes the result of the wars rather than the cause. The combatants understood that risk.
The girls of Otorohanga were the catalyst for the welcomed legislation, but it must be remembered that their views arose from totally dishonest information supplied to them by a senior Maori leader who knew better. Over many years many have retold the story of 100 or more innocent Maori being locked in a church and burnt to death. Even Dame Susan Devoy has retold that tale at a public event. Today most school pupils consider it to be true.
The truth is the church stood until 1931, and there are at least five published pieces that can confirm It was not burnt down.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Editor (Sent to the Nelson Mail 1/9/19)
Who could possibly disagree with Neville Male (letters, Nelson Mail, Aug.31st)? But the problem, of course, will be how to agree on a curriculum with a “full, factual and balanced history - to be taught without fear or favour” (as Neville Male puts it). This curriculum must also include learning the social facts about the people who are creating the history - in our case Europeans and Maori. The Europeans represented the most developed civilisation the world had ever seen, with a background of 4000 years’ understanding of written legislation, with its culture of ever increasing scientific, technological and philosophical thinking. Maori were an illiterate stone age people - albeit highly developed, culturally and intellectually. Teaching of history must include such understanding.
We can be justly proud of the Treaty of Waitangi - unique in the world. But it must be fully understood that this was not a contract of power sharing between two equal partners. It was a treaty granting to Maori the same legal rights under British common law as those enjoyed by the European settlers. This interpretation was shared by us all, Maori and Europeans alike, until very recently when sadly, feelings have come to the fore among some New Zealanders demanding special rights on racial grounds. I hate racism.
ANDY ESPERSEN, Nelson
Dear Editor (Sent to the Nelson Mail 19/8/19
Gary Clover (letters, August 19th) reads into the Waitangi Treaty that granting “full [Maori] chief-ship over iwi resources, while the Crown would rule over European settlers” implies a “governing partnership”. Well, to me it implies no such thing. It simply guarantees that Maori would be granted the same property rights as groups that European settlers enjoyed as individuals. And yes, as Clover points out, it most certainly was meant to be an instrument of protection for Maori (as well as for the settlers). To me it simply implies that Maori were offered, and gratefully accepted, the same property rights as the settlers - as well as all the other legal protections and privileges inherent in English common law. The old Maori weren’t primitive fools - in fact I believe they were the most culturally, and intellectually advanced stone age people in the world (but perhaps I am biased, being a New Zealander!). The richness and spiritual depth of their language is a proof of that. Unlike the many other stone age people unsettled by Europeans, they immediately comprehended and embraced the peculiar European culture of personal rights backed by a written code of legislation - so alien to their own culture.
This understanding of the Treaty was shared by us all ever since the signing of the treaty. To me it is immensely saddening that people like Gary Clover now openly subscribe to an altogether different understanding of the Treaty - one which blatantly desires racially based legislation - and in effect, dual nationhood. It is my fervent hope that this ugly episode in New Zealand policy will not prevail. I hate racism.
ANDY ESPERSEN
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Nelson Mail 19/8/19)
There is nothing written in Te Tiriti that even implies a 'governing partnership' (Gary Clover 19/8/19).
The main points of the preamble in Te Tiriti are 1) obtain the chiefs consent for sovereignty 2) preserve chiefs their land, 3) establish peace and order amongst the tribes, 4) establish a government in order to protect both settlers and natives.
Hence Article 1 clearly states ceding ‘ENTIRE sovereignty of their country forever’, Article 2 guarantees the chiefs and tribes and ALL the people of NZ possession of their lands, dwellings and their property. And that for the protection of Maoris the Queen is the primary purchaser of their lands should they wish to sell. Article 3 gives protection to all NZers, and granted Maoris the rights of British subjects – a huge gift from the most powerful nation on earth at that time, especially to the many thousands of Maori slaves.
Article 4 – there simply isn’t one, even Clover’s esteemed historian Professor Paul Moon debunks this neo nonsense in NZ Herald 29/1/13.
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
The Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 4/8/19)
Ihumatao and things maori - STAY OFF URBAN LAND (SOUL)
Ihumatao land presently occupied by mischief-makers is not the OTUATAUA Stonefields 100ha site which was dealt with in 2001 by Manakau City Council and ARA apparently to everyone’s satisfaction. Fletchers legitimately own the Ihumatao land and local iwi are more than happy with the Fletchers deal reached by them for land and houses and so they should be. Now, suddenly we have the riffraff interlopers/trespassers appearing on the scene without any colour of right, unlawfully occupying the Fletchers 33.8 ha land acquired in 2016 for around $40million.
Give in to the bullying demands and the loss to Fletchers will be the purchase price, holding costs, loss of profits on the sale of homes and sections which we conservatively put at around $150m in total plus all legal, survey planning and consultant’s costs incurred to date. Local maori would lose the negotiated 8ha.and 25 homes. Current cost to Kiwi taxpayer for police & political input at least $1million.
There must be no Government or taxpayer bailout – as that sets another Titford farm type precedent.
Suggestion is let interlopers fund it, 5000 sods @ $30,000 each – that should do the trick, then Fletchers can just walk away. However, this ain’t what the whinging great unwashed, unemployed beneficiaries want, as not their modis operandi of always wanting something for nothing and stuff everyone else. They bleat give us free greenfields and add to the Stonefields reserve.
Well the ultimate final solution is just arrest them, remove them from Fletcher’s land send them packing and where appropriate institute criminal proceedings.This is no Bastion Point and no negotiation is necessary for what is privately owned land. Oh, and Fletchers while you are at it get a fawning apology from the Government and maori interests.
Incidentally, only 40kms away is Bombay Hills obelisk and boulder complex, said to predate maori arrival in NZ. As there is no history of maori, constructing stone walls, has anyone tried to establish when the walls were built by non- maori and whether there is any link with Bombay boulders. Food for thought eh? Might throw a different slant on the whole scenario.
Recent Friday evening airport interview featured Ms. Ardern with the look of a startled transfixed possum in the headlights, flanked by her sullen po-faced Ministers Henare and Davis, making a play for idiot magnet negotiations .However ACT, David Rankin, NZ Taxpayers Union and most other sane law abiding Kiwis don’t want a bar of kowtowing to violence threats and intimidation unlawful behaviour or fairy tales and rightly so too. Fletchers have followed all the correct protocols with ihumato land and Otuataua Stonefields and no one suggests otherwise.
To argue with people who have renounced the use of reason and authority and whose philosophy consists in holding fellow Kiwis in contempt is like administering medicine to the brain dead whose sense of entitlement is delusional built on self-centredness, greed and laziness and contrary to their opinion, no one owes them anything.
ROB PATERSON, Tauranga
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 17/8/19)
People who think like Rob Rattenbury that any Maori suffered trauma from colonization should recall the fate of their Taranaki neighbours a few years before 1840 when the Pukerangiora pa was captured by Waikato tribes. About 1300 were victims of cannibal feasts, some thrown into the ovens alive. A similar number were taken away by the Waikato, carrying the tattooed heads of their kinfolk which the Waikato decided to keep as trophies. The establishment of British sovereignty enabled them to return to their homes. Colonization was their salvation.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor (Sent to the Otago Daily times 16/8/19)
Re articles from Jean Balchin then Erik Olssen 30.7.19.
I consider Erik more acceptable in her writing, many like Jean’s writings are what is causing division in this country, there is to much negative regarding Captain James Cook he was a clever man and mapped all of NZ, he was not a coloniser, if it had not been him, the French or someone else would have been here, it was inevitable!
Yes we should teach more NZ history, but whose writings, there is so much being rewritten of our history and trying to change our history.
Cook is our history so is colonisation and much was for the good. I don't notice a lot being told about the Maori mass murderers ,Te Kooti and Te Rauparaha who went through NZ murdering their own people and white and eating them. Then to ad insult on insult the country has apologised to their descendants and give them a Payout.
Lately there has been the large payout to the Chatham island Morirori tribe, which should have come from the Taranaki Tribes not the NZ taxpayer. It was the Taranaki Tribe that went there and murdered them and pegged them out on the beach.
So if you are going to tell the NZ history you have to tell it all. Not just insults to the likes of Cook, this is why and what is causing a division in our country, it is all very one sided.
C.HUMPHREYS, Katikati
Dear Editor (Sent to the Nelson Mail)
Gary Clover (letters, August 10th) has completely misunderstood what the Treaty of Waitangi was about. Does he really believe that Queen Victoria would ever contemplate sitting down to negotiate with a primitive, aboriginal people the rights to “control the flood of incoming settlers”? He is dreaming. The old Maori chiefs weren’t silly. In those days all Maori tribes were competing to attract as many European settlers as possible to their various localities. They signed the Treaty of Waitangi because they, being mentally so bright, had completely understood that peculiar European cultural idea of legally enforced, personal ownership of land (which was so different from theirs) - and they wanted some regulation here so that they would not suddenly find themselves without any land to call their own. Hence the treaty. And I do not think you will find a similar document anywhere else in the world. That is why we, all of us, can be so proud.
And has Gary Clover not noticed that over the last 25 years we have successfully negotiated redress (and necessary apologies) with Maori? Why, all of a sudden, do some people now wish to scrap the Treaty of Waitangi and institute a new, untried type of dual nationhood?
ANDY ESPERSEN, Nelson
Dear Ed, (Sent to the NZ Herald 31/7/19)
Vincent O’Malley is being his mischievous self comparing Ihumatao with Stonehenge and asking “would the English allow housing to surround Stonehenge?”
It is not an issue likely to arise as Stonehenge is in the middle of nowhere with the nearest city 50km away.
Ihumatao is in the middle of our biggest city.
Every city of note in Europe has very significant heritage sites surrounded by houses and commercial activity.
I look forward to Vincent saying something good once in a while, but don’t think it is in his DNA.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Ed, (Sent to the NZ Herald 30/7/19)
The “SOUL” group headed by Miss Pania Newton are either confused or willing to ignore history as to the reasons Māori land was confiscated in 1865.
The Māori king, Tāwhiao, had declared in 1863 that no Europeans would cross the Mangatawhiri river as his father Te Wherowhero claimed no Waikato Māori had signed the Treaty of Waitangi, so there was no obligation to accept Queen Victoria as their sovereign. A false claim, as in 1840 the signing at Port Waikato by 32 signatories were almost all Waikato chiefs.
Gov Grey refused to accept two sovereign nations in New Zealand. He demanded all Waikato Māori living north of the Mangatawhiri either plead allegiance to the Crown or leave the district. Following the Waikato war, the land around Ihumatao was confiscated.
In 1995 the Government accepted that the confiscations were unjust and offered Waikato- Tainui $170m. A ratchet clause in that settlement may result in $300m eventually being paid.
Treaty claim terms exclude private land, so recipients are expected to negotiate to buy back land on the open market. Waikato-Tainui have not sought to purchase the land in question yet Fletchers have been willing sellers.
Over many years both Manukau City and Auckland Council have negotiated with the recognised tanga whenua, “Te Kawerau ā Maki” resulting in an amicable agreement that “SOUL” now contests. That agreement also resulted in the purchase of land that is now the adjacent “Stonefield’s Reserve”.
The solution is simple. “SOUL and Te Kawerau ā Maki” need to ask the Māori King to arbitrate.
He may choose to negotiate with Fletchers, but I think his focus is more on another airport hotel rather than housing for his people.
The government has no place in the dispute. Taxpayers have already settled with those involved.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Ed, (Sent to the Waikato Times 30/7/19)
I would urge our prime minister to cease any Government involvement in the Ihumatao affair. She should make a bold statement to our nation fully explaining the history of the land, post 1863 and advise the acknowledged tanga whenua, “Te Kawerau a Maki” and the group known a “Soul” headed by Pania Newton to settle their differences. They could ask the Maori King to appoint an adjudicator.
Fletchers and Auckland Council should not be parties to the dispute. They and the earlier Manukau City have followed all the rules and bent over backwards to meet the wishes of Te Kawerau a Maki over many years at significant ratepayer cost.
Under the Treaty of Waitangi, the Waikato-Tainui people were awarded $170m dollars in 1995. A ratchet clause related to the size of the “Treaty Envelope” will likely double that amount within a few years. Under the Treaty of Waitangi Act, no privately owned land was to be touched, with the cash awarded to be put toward purchases as the tribe decided. Evidently Fletchers have offered to sell the land with no takers.
Maybe Miss Newton could ask the King to cancel the $150m deal to build a new hotel at the nearby airport and offer it to Fletchers?
To sweeten the deal, they might ask Fletchers to tender to build some houses which they could then rent or on sell (at cost?) to tribal members under favourable terms.
As a taxpayer I have no wish to purchase the same piece of land twice!
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Ed, (Sent to the Waikato Times 13/7/19)
Today it has become commonplace to exaggerate and use extravagant words or expressions for what are often minor events or conditions.
Instead of being affected by a cold we are just as likely to be impacted, a word once most used to describe what an asteroid did to wipe out the dinosaurs.
This practice is no more obvious than when Maori issues or colonisation is the topic.
Prominent examples are the description of Parihaka as a holocaust when in fact no injuries were sustained, and describing as atrocities at Rangiaowhia in 1864 when there were 12 Maori deaths solely as a result of one hot head refusing to surrender and then firing at troops from a whare, while surrounded by a force of more than 1000.
Very recently your correspondent Martin van Beynen described “Cook’s visit was the beginning of a catastrophe” My Collin’s dictionary describes a catastrophe as “a sudden, extensive or notable disaster or misfortune”.
As a race Maori were in a precarious position in 1769. History would suggest Cook’s arrival was the greatest event in their history and he should be placed on a pedestal alongside Gov. Grey.
I am constantly bewildered by how different we and the Australians view Cook.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Ed, (Sent to the Waikato Times 13/7/19)
“Today in History” 12th July erroneously referred to the British troops invading the Waikato on that day in 1863.
New Zealand had been established as a British colony over 20 years earlier under Queen Victoria as Sovereign.
Troops under her command were merely exercising that authority.
Foolishly the “Kingite” movement chose to exclude anyone access to the Waikato south of the Mangatawhiri Stream.
They did so in the belief that as “Waikato” had not signed the Treaty of Waitangi they were under no compulsion to obey any directive from Gov. Gen. Grey.
That assertion was in error. The third largest signing of the Treaty was within the Waikato rohe, at Port Waikato, when of the 32 signatories most were chiefs under Te Wherowhero.
Many of them had travelled from the King Country to sign. There was also a later signing at Kawhia.
Gen. Cameron, ordered by Grey under the Queens authority, exercised the Crowns right to put down a rebellion. Sadly the result was very punitive land confiscations, however this was recognised a number of times over the years, last being in 1995 when Tainui received $170m with much more to come as the Treaty process rumbles on.
Sadly the signing at Port Waikato has no recognition today. I suspect the reason why is to avoid exposing the folly of the Kingite movement.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Gisborne Herald 9/7/19)
It is surely time for the likes of Wally Te Ua (Herald, 8/7/19) to acknowledge that pre colonial Maori society was one of continual brutal and treacherous cannibal warfare. In a few short pre-colonial decades one third of their own people perished. So much of the breeding stock was killed that their numbers declined for many decades and recovered only through extensive inter-breeding with the wicked white colonials. Wally’s “Land Wars (the bloody past)”, more accurately described as tribal rebellions, were a mere sideshow by comparison. Remember as the first arrival of Captain Cook is commemorated that a dozen of the crew of his second ship, “Adventure”, were killed, cooked and eaten in Queen Charlotte Sound in 1773. He did not retaliate.
It was those who followed in the footsteps of Cook who saved the Maori people from themselves as acknowledged by Chief Taipari of the Bay of Plenty. My advice to Wally is to recognize this, get over his alleged wrongs and get on with life.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 18/11/18)
Re article by Jacob McSweeny Saturday 17th “What iwi want” a leaked document reveals what will be on the table ahead of Wanganui treaty Land claims. What people haven’t been told is the chiefs of Wanganui sold the land.
In a copy of translation deed of purchase for Wanganui tells you that Maori sold the land to the Europeans. Maori never owned land they occupied it until other Maori invaded and took it off them.
Maori originals took the land off the earlier inhabitants, the Ngatu Hotu (Celts), Patupairehe and Waitaha. They were the pre-Maori who lived in peace with one another hundreds of years before the people called Maori arrived here.
The Treaty of Waitangi had nothing to do with land claims but to bring law and order to the country. Governments over the years have allowed many of the descendants of the tangata Maori. to twist the truth about the true history of new Zealand, until Governments it’s historians the universities and Te Papa is no more than propaganda to allow today’s part maori to be paid compensation or given valuable assets by governments they do not deserve or are entitled when the truth is known. It’s all for the people of New Zealand.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 13/12/18)
Re Front page of the Chronicle Tuesday Dec 13th “Mayor slams leaker of treaty document”, is it because he doesn’t want the people of Wanganui to know the truth.
The sale of old Wanganui by May 24th 1848 nearly eight years of waiting, arrangements were so far completed between Mr McLean and the natives that a draft deed was drawn up relating to the absolute sale of the district.
All though our canoe is large and has many in it yet all are of the same mind.
Let no one attempt to infringe upon the lands now about to be sold to the Europeans.
The land is now married to the white man; let them take it, and let the natives remember; if they now intrude it will be a breach of the Seventh Commandment.
Pg 320: The block sold contained 80,000 acres for which the magnificent sum of 1000 pounds was paid.
Listen all people who see or know of this paper giving up or parting with land. Now, we, the people of “Wanganui,: of Wangaehu,” of “Kai iwi,” consent on behalf of ourselves, our relatives, children, and all who may be descended of us or succeed us, to entirely give up all our lands within the boundaries hereinafter written,
Maori never owned the land as they took it off the ancient people who were here before them. This new land claim should not proceed.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZHerald 26/5/19)
Clearly Tim Howard (letters 23/5/19) has never read Te Tiriti that 540 chiefs signed? Article One clearly states ceding entire sovereignty to the Queen of England for ever.
The chiefs ceded FULL sovereignty (kawanatanga) and they knew it, read the chief’s speeches in Colenso’s record, further supported by chiefs speeches at Kohimarama 20 years later. It is utterly absurd therefore to say that in Article 2, they somehow retained it.
He further discredits himself in referencing a racially stacked and therefore biased Waitangi Tribunal report, who the then Attorney General Christopher Finlayson rebutted in the media “There is no question that the Crown has sovereignty in New Zealand. This report doesn't change that fact."
Auckland University Professor Paul Moon also stated at the time "I was shocked by some of the statements contained in the report," he said. "This is not a concern about some trivial detail, but over the fundamental history of our country, which the tribunal has got manifestly wrong."
Perhaps Mr Howard could explain if the chiefs still thought they had full chieftianship then why did they release their slaves, ceased cannibalism, female infanticide and tribal warfare?
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Letters to Ed. (Sent to the NZ Herald 25/5/19)
Dear Lizzie, I love your music but am not so keen on your grasp of history concerning Cooks first week in New Zealand.
Observing the hatred toward Cook generated by others who are also ignorant of the truth, and such things as cause and effect, I am left to ponder what sort of place we would live in had Cook kept on sailing toward Queensland.
What language would we be speaking? Would young Kiwis be doing there OE in Paris instead of London? Would we have rolled over in the dark days of 1939 and invited Germany and then Japan to walk on in?
The reality is that on the strength of Cooks arrival, and subsequent visits, opened this country up to Queen Victoria and the reality that this became one of the richest, most stable, enlightened and admired countries the world has seen.
Cook was a celebrated explorer who treated his people well and respected those he encountered along the way. We should be very, very glad of his contribution.
Lizzie, If you promise not to re write history I will promise not to ever sing in public.
MURRAY REID, Cambridge
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 23/5/19)
Tim Howard’s (Treaty Settlements letter 23 May 2019) suggestion that some people have different ideas on what did or didn’t happen 180 years ago is a topic which can consume many hours - or decades. The more important discussion for us is what we want New Zealand’s future to look like? In detail please. No nice words or generalisations. Just hard facts so we, the people who work hard and pay our taxes, understand exactly where he and his ilk are trying to lead us.
Then perhaps he can tell us what established, successful constitutional arrangement does he want our country to emulate? I’ve tried looking but for the life of me, I can’t find one example of tribalism in government where the ordinary people prosper. But then this quest for power may not be about the wellbeing of ordinary people.
FIONA MACKENZIE, Whangaparaoa
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Otago Daily Times 19/5/19)
I would like to add a few more facts to Suzanne Menzies-Culling’s letter of the 18/5/19.
For instance, I wonder if she is aware that Major Thomas Bunbury and Captain Joseph Nias RN proclaimed Sovereignty over the South Island on June 17th 1840 on the basis of cession, after Bunbury had obtained the signatures of a number of chiefs.
Also, was she aware that Ngai Tahu have had five full and final settlements, this after they sold much of the South Island before the Treaty was signed and the Treaty commitment to investigate pre 1840 land sales enabled the chiefs to sell the land again in 10 deals from 1844 onwards for a total of £14,750.
In regards to the 1866 Oyster Fisheries Act, I understand this applied to all New Zealanders not just Maori as Menzies-Culling implies.
The 1867 Maori Representation Act was an interim measure for five years because the Maori Land Court established in 1865 was expected to resolve title issues for Maori who wanted to vote but could not meet the electoral requirement of individual ownership of a freehold estate to the value of £25. This Act was extended a further five years in 1872, and extended again in 1876, this time indefinitely.
Since 1840 many statutes have been passed to help Maori adapt to changing times. However today, as Suzanne has done, these well intentioned statutes are twisted to put them in bad light.
Lastly, Article 2 of the treaty refers to property rights of all New Zealanders (not just Maori) therefore the only tenable meaning of rangatiratanga in the context of this Article and the Treaty as a whole is ‘full possession’.
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 13/5/19)
Potonga Neilson letter May 13th “put no deadline on justice” does’t know the true history of Taranaki. The fact is the Taranaki people first lost their land to the Waikato Maoris in 1830/34, they then sold most of it, which in Maori lore did not belong to them.
It was the governor who paid off the Waikato owners and then returned it in 1841 with the protection of British law and order. The leasing of the returned land was a means of the Maori owners receiving a return on very productive land they were uninterested in developing or farming. Not only have they benefited by the leases on the land but also from the taxes the farmers have paid to the government over the years.
A full and final settlement has already been made and honoured by the people of New Zealand in 1946 for land confiscated by the crown in 1863. The British made it possible for the Taranaki Maoris to return to their defeated lands as well as receiving a return for 100 years without even lifting a finger, but still Potonga wants more.
By 1860 Taranaki had been fully purchased three times. Now our government is talking about teaching the real history of our country, this will never happen as they haven’t got the guts to do it.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 13/5/19)
Some people want to believe that maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand. To be indigenous you would have to be first on the land which maori are not.
NZ Government and United Nations have no hard evidence who can prove maori are indigenous John Key allowed Pita (Peter) Sharples to sign the United Nations Declaration of the rights of indigenous people, New Zealanders not knowing this until the following day.
Ngapuhi chief David Rankin says “maori are not the indigenous people of New Zealand” there were many other races already living here, long before maori.
Other maori community’s talk about waitaha, Turehu, and Patupairehe “ When our ancestors arrived at the shores there were people here to greet them.
People like Captain Cook, Julius Van Hasst and Alfred Newman mentioned there were people here before Maoris.
An extract from a book first published in 1559 by Jean Alfonse a sea pilot of Portuguese birth, gives a story of Captaine Jan Alfonce discovery of New Zealand. They called us “Isle de Hommes Blanis” (Island home of the whites). There were seen people who were white and strong, similar in facial appearance to Germadic races.
Who were these people, they were the Patupairehe, Kapupungapunga, Waitaha, Ngati Hotu/celts Turehu, Moriori and others which most of them were caucasion.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 14/4/19)
Andrew Little In his comments while reviewing Hate Speech, Andrew Little displays an incredible ignorance of History and an apparent wish to classify historical records as Hate speech. This alone shows how inappropriate he is in his Justice Minister.
He dismisses as ‘myths’ the description of pre-European Maori as living ‘a violent Stone age existence.’ Mr Little, they were a Stone age people, any other materials were unknown to them and inter-tribal contact was often violent. Land was acquired by conquest and usually those defeated in the battles were killed or enslaved. These practices continued till the beginning of the Nineteenth Century and were only curtailed at the request of the early missionaries and the Chiefs’ conversions to Christianity. There is much historical evidence of this
According to Professor Rutherford, former professor of History at Auckland University, there were around 42,600 deaths in the inter-tribal battles of the Musket Wars from 1807 till 1845. This is probably the most accurate figure and there is much supporting evidence of this terrible carnage in the records of missionaries, sea captains and others of the time. This, Mr little, is not Hate Speech.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor (Sent to The Press 6/5/19)
Ekant Veer, a University of Canterbury lecturer, may well claim the word Pakeha is not an insult, but the problem with the term Pakeha is that it refers to everyone who is not Maori no matter what race or ethnicity. Being Maori means being tangata whenua, therefore holding a special status that comes with ethnic-based rights and a superior recognition of culture and beliefs. The term Pakeha, is not in itself derogatory, but it does by definition carry a cultural inferiority. For these reasons Pakeha is an inherently racist term.
I am of European heritage, of Welsh and Scottish descent. I don't describe myself as Welsh or Scottish, nor as a Pakeha, but rather as a New Zealander or a Kiwi, because these are inclusive terms. They include everybody who considers New Zealand home, be they of European, Asian, African or American extraction and is also inclusive of Maori.
We need to be country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equality under the law. If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders we will fail as country.
RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Nelson Mail 3/5/19)
Contrary to Gary Clover’s spin in (1/5/19) the Treaty of Waitangi does not give Maori ‘exclusive rights’.
In Article One the chiefs cede full sovereignty, Article Two guarantees property rights to all New Zealanders and that Maori landholders grant the Queen the exclusive rights to purchase their lands should they wish to sell, this was to protect Maori from opportunistic land buyers. Article Three granted Maori the rights of British subjects, a huge boon to the many Maori slaves.
The ToW was signed in Nu Tirani (New Zealand) the mythical Aotearoa was not mentioned.
Professor Paul Moon (NZ Herald 29/1/13) says that the ‘Fourth Article’ which emerged in the 1990s is easily debunked as it does not appear in either the Maori or English texts, and that exponents of the "fourth article" who cite conversations held between Hobson and others at Waitangi as somehow constituting binding parts of the Treaty is based on false reasoning and an impoverished understanding of international law.
Mr Clover, by their own admission Maoris arrived here by seacraft and only approximately 500 years before Europeans, further they believe that the spirits of their dead leave Cape Reinga to return to Hawaiki, how can they be ‘indigenous’?
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Sir, (Sent to the Northland Age, 14/4/19)
Yes Ivan Grbich (Will No One Listen, Letters, NA, April 11), I am listening. You ask what is required regarding to qualifications and recommendations before any person from overseas can be accepted as a citizen of this country! It seems that if you took to one of your two wives with a hammer, it might be a good start. Belief in the principles and partnership of the Treaty of Waitangi which came into effect about 1970 (whatever they are), are another. The Prime Minister knows what they are, but she does not know what the three original articles of 1840 are!
Why the lady about whom you write has not been given citizenship is beyond me. She has given sterling service to the Northland hospice where she works for over 12 years, and has earned her right to stay in this country, along with her husband. If they are forced to go by the authorities, then an injustice will have been committed.
I join with you in saying let them stay. Her employer, as well as the Editor of the Northland Age, have requested that they be allowed to remain. They have earned it. What heinous crime have they committed to demand their deportation?
In relation to migrants wanting to come here to live, I would ask them four questions: 1) Do you believe in freedom of religion? 2) Do believe in freedom from religion? 3) Do you believe in the freedom of the individual, and 4) Do you believe in equal rights for women? Failure on any one of these four questions would bar entry!
KEVAN G. MARKS, Kaipara.
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 21/3/19)
Re article in NZ Herald Jan 22 Andrew Little led a delegation to the United Nations. He said the Treaty had been breached leaving maori strangers in their own land the impacts of colonisation continue to be felt today through entrenched structural racism poorer outcome for maori. What a load of rubbish, Andrew Little is a guy who failed as a leader of a party, also was unable to win a seat to get into Parliament so he came through the back door. He just doesn’t know anything about our true history of our country.
The people called maori never owned the land they took it off the peaceful tribes who were here before them like the kapupungapunga, Patupaiarere, Ngati Hotu/Celts, Waitaha, turehu and Moriori. etc. which makes maori not in indigenous to New Zealand. It is the descendants of some of these people who are the strangers in this land, not maori.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor (Sent to the Hawkes Bay Today 26/3/19)
NO VOTING TRIBAL APPOINTEES FOR HASTINGS
The Hastings District Council should at tomorrow’s (Thurs, March 28) council meeting reject a proposal to include voting tribal appointees on its four standing committees.
By allowing appointees to vote on standing committees only, the proposal circumvents the requirement of Section 41 of the Local Government Act 2002 that only elected representatives may vote at full council meetings.
The proposal also circumvents the requirement for a referendum because a referendum is only required if the proposal is for a Maori ward.
Yesterday’s media release claims the move would boost “Maori participation on all matters facing our community” but does not say that Hastings already has substantial Maori participation by way of its three councillors with Maori ancestry.
The council’s push to add voting appointees from four tribal groups is like adding four voting appointees from four family groups, which looks absurd and is a departure from our basic democratic arrangements.
The council’s media release loosely describes the proposed voting tribal appointees as “tangata whenua representatives” without specifying the tribal groups represented.
The move gives the appearance of a weak council being pressured by vested interests. Councillors should put democracy before political correctness and dump the proposal for voting tribal appointees.
MIKE BUTLER, Hastings
Dear Editor, (Sent to The Press 24/3/19)
More to the point what does Gary A Clover (letters 22/3/19) think Rangioawhia or Parihaka was?
For his information, Parihaka was the reclaiming of government land from a group of rebel Maori who had squatted on it for 14years, and was reclaimed without loss of life.
Ranigioawhia was another brilliant and humane action and was the beginning of the end of tribal rebellion in the Waikato, also carried out with minimum loss of life. This Kingitanga movement (a treaty breach) had planned an attack on the citizens of Auckland - “I shall spare neither unarmed people nor property” a letter reveals.
Clover’s accusation of fairminded New Zealander’s having ideological predilections of the Treaty of Waitangi is laughable when the likes of Dame Ann Salmond appear to believe that Ngapuhi never ceded sovereignty, yet Article One (Maori language treaty) which many notable Ngapuhi chiefs signed clearly states ceding sovereignty.
Lastly, I challenge Mr Clover to point to the word/s or clause/s in the ToW that even imply ‘collective political rights’.
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Hawkes Bay Today 21/3/19)
It is a shame that Mr. Heperi Smith (Editorial 14/3/19) was not sincerely ‘gracious’ and showed genuine ‘understanding’ at the Otane public meeting by addressing the attendees in New Zealand’s common everyday language, English.
The long suffering public were in fact the gracious understanding ones by not walking out of the meeting.
In a nutshell, the reo zealots rudely push their agenda by arrogant grandstanding to captive audiences.
I, and in my opinion the majority of New Zealanders believe New Zealand ‘grew up’ in 1840, however there is an element in our society that want to hark back to the stone age days of inked faces and prattling in a neo fabricated language. This aberration survives only on taxpayer life support and through coercion in the workplace to learn something that is off no use outside NZ.
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 23/2/19)
Re article in the Whanganui Chronicle 23rd Feb, ‘uneasy about our day of celebrations’. I have never read such rubbish as the one written by Dani Lebo. If she is an American she should go back home to her own country, she just doesn’t know anything about our true history of New Zealand.
1st She says we are colonisers living on indigenous land. For a starter Maori are not indigenous to New Zealand. There were other people here before they arrived , even our history and Maori tells us. Some of the people living here before the Maori were Ngati Kahupungapunga, Waitaha, Turehu,Patupaiarere, Ngati Hotu(Celts) Chinese who were all caucasion /fair skinned people except the Moriori who were darker skinned..
2nd Maori are not Tangata Whenua, which means ‘the ancient ones’ or ‘the people before us, until Maori change it to mean themselves.
3rd Dani mentions about our colonial history, what about our pre maori history like the Celt village in the Waipoua forest takes it about 3000 years old covering 600 acres. Koro Pa in New Plymouth built a 1000 years be fore Maori. There also were a miniature Stonehenge with blocks standing six to seven feet above the ground at Kerikeri. and another north of Taupo consisting of fifty great stones.
Dani mentions about celebrating Maori culture, what about Celtic culture.
4th wrong New Zealand has never been called Aotearoa, Maoris never used that word.
If the paper uses you as their new columnist I pity the paper, get your facts right.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Ed. (Sent to the Waikato Times 2/3/19)
Don’t you dare Mayor King!
I would be fairly confident that Mr. Maipi’s version of events at Rangiaowhia and Parihaka would be at variance to the accounts of many respected and well researched Historians.
I would recommend that the Mayor invite one or two to a similar closed meeting with him and Councillors. (not O’Malley please.)
While Mr. Maipi highlighted three individuals whose names he wants expunged for “murdering Maori” has he forgotten under whose instructions they were operating?
Given his reasoning shouldn’t Mayor and Council also have in train a move to rename Victoria St?
When Mr Maipi vandalised a prominent City statue, without penalty, I suggested he had far too much publicity. I repeat that belief.
MURRAY REID, Leamington
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 1/3/19
I do some more “cherry-picking” for H Norton, but could fill your paper with hard facts. But first, I did NOT say “that there were little or no settlements or agriculture along the South Taranaki coast before Europeans settled it.”
Quoting Charles Heaphy, reporting in 1861 to the House of Representatives:
“It is a peculiar feature in the history of Taranaki that before the regular settlement of the country by the British, it had for several years been almost deserted by the natives.
“The Waikato conquered it in 1830 ... but not considering it worth while to retain occupation, they returned Northward.
“A miserable remnant of about 30 or 40 Natives of the Ngatiawa lived at Ngamotu point in 1839, when the writer was there, and were prepared to swim off to the Sugarloaf Island, where they had formed burrows, and laid up provisions, in anticipation of a renewed invasion of the Waikatos.”
I can provide missionary Ironside’s full letter from which I have already “cherry-picked”.
It is nonsense for Norton to describe the suppression of the rebellions as “invasions” of British sovereign territory. In the first rebellion against the Crown of some Taranaki tribes, in a little over twelve months, the rebels destroyed 177 settler properties. I have W I Grayling’s detailed 1862 list.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Sir, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 25/2/19)
Northern Hemisphere Hallucinations
Well now that Waitangi Day is over (Dani Lebo 23 January) let’s try facing reality.
Assertions (ipse dixit) by treatyists, apologists and part maori activists as is the norm are usually based on creative fabricated myth-history rarely coming anywhere near the truth or facts and exaggerated beyond recognition. February 6th always sees these mistruths trotted out ad nauseum.
What’s more the ‘chosen few’ are no more indigenous than all Kiwis born in this country and these souls are not and were never conservationists or environmentalists per se quite the reverse if history and past behavior/practices like destruction of moas and South Island forests are anything to go by.
Claiming special race-based privileges aimed to score more of the valuable resources is a travesty. Entitlements claimed are usually to the detriment and cost of all other Kiwis. Non- productive non- contributory parasites would be a good description for this bunch who rabbit on like one tracked cracked records with their invalid PC claptrap. There is no place for race- based activists promoting neo racism nor their fawning toady sycophants a.k.a Awol brain brigade.
The proposition that somehow NZ pre-1840 was a Utopian Garden of Eden and has since become Hades is unmitigated arrant nonsense. We have moved on over 200years from stone age New Zealand and even if there was any shred of truth in what is regularly promulgated just get over the fictional Treaty principles and partnership nonsense, get on with life, stop navel gazing and seeking free lunches.
Remember there is nothing that succeeds like failure. ”One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their dubious presence. No society has ever thrived because it had a large and growing class of parasites living off those who produce” [Thomas Sowell]
ROB PATERSON, Matapihi
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Sunday Star Times 17/2/19)
Peter Dey (Letters February10) seems to suffer tunnel vision when distinguishing between ‘stolen’ and ‘legally confiscated’ lands, the latter being the consequence of rebelling tribes breaching the Treaty.
We can debate the translations of the Tiriti o Waitangi (only the Maori treaty and Littlewood final English draft ) ad nauseum but the facts are the Queen of England, ruler of greatest empire on the planet at that time did not do partnerships, why would she? Especially with a collection of disparate warring tribes/chiefs who had previously begged for protection from primarily the French, secondly from fellow marauding tribes, google Yates letter to King William IV.
As Article 3 granted Maori the rights of British subjects it was constitutionally impossible for the Crown to enter into a partnership with it’s subjects.
Position is clear sovereignty was ceded, no partnership and no principles.
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age and various papers, date unknown)
Re Dominion Post February 2nd Petition ‘Should we be Aotearoa’ Why do we need two names for our country. Who is wanting to change the name of New Zealand and include Aotearoa. In the treaty New Zealand was called Nu-Tirani in 1840.
It was Turi as navigator of the Aotea who brought the Moriori to New Zealand over 300 years before the Maori.
It was the Moriori who used the name Aotea after their craft landed meaning ‘The Dawn’ or ‘Where we have landed’.
About 1890 a couple of Europeans writers use it as a fanciful name for New Zealand. Aotea is not a Maori name, The reason behind adding Aotearoa to it is that further down the track the word New Zealand will be removed.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 15/2/19)
Potonga (alias Gary) Neilson (Chronicle, 15/2/19) may be right that there are some old kumara pits along the Taranaki coast but that is about all he says before drifting into fantasy.
As recorded by missionary Samuel Ironside who, unlike Potonga, lived in Taranaki in the 1850s: “They have now millions of acres of land unappropriated, not one tithe of which they can ever cultivate. This land has been a fruitful source of quarrel, bloodshed and violence.” And violence there certainly was. Has Potonga forgotten the capture of Pukerangiora pa, just a few years before 1840 when about 1300 defenders were killed and eaten by invaders from Waikato, an event which led to the virtual depopulation of the whole of south Taranaki. It is that sort of behaviour which “decimated the native population of this land” (to use his terminology), not any actions of the presumed wicked white colonials. Read John Robinson’s careful demographic analysis in “When two cultures meet” (Tross, 2012) if you doubt it – a vastly superior source of information to Potonga’s wild speculation.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age, Dominion Post, Christchurch Press, and Otago Daily Times. 10-02-2019)
I have three questions: 1: What are the principles of, and 2: What is the partnership pertaining to the Treaty of Waitangi (how can we have a partnership if we are one people?), and 3: What percentage of Maori have benefitted from the billions of dollars (and counting) which have been handed out by the New Zealand taxpayer to them to date?
The treaty gave Maori people British citizenship, and saved them from harsh treatment from the most warlike among them (no need to go into explicit detail). It may be said that many, if not most, Maori were not warlike, but simply wanted to live in peace, as they do today. I challenge the Governor-General, Prime Minister, Parliamentarians, Historians, University Lecturers, Media Journalists, and anybody else to front up with definite answers. But I won’t hold my breath!
What percentage of Maori blood do they have in their veins? One leader has 1/16th Maori and the rest is, of course, 15/16ths “Pakeha”! One person in his tribe has 1/256th! One prime minister, when asked what constitutes a Maori, answered that “if you think you are Maori, you are Maori”. Another said that he would do something about the situation but, on becoming PM, did not want hokois from hell!
I understand that there some 4000 sites in New Zealand that may well prove that there were people here before the arrival of Maori, including a dormitory some 72 feet by 12 feet in Akaroa Harbour. It’s time to dig some of them up and put our true history to the test.
KEVAN G. MARKS, Kaipara.
Letter to the editor; (Sent to the Sunday Star Times 31/1/19)
In response to Hinemoa Elder 28.1.19, What is this Woman on? She needs to weed out her own racist lies, the so called Colonials have built all the infrastructure and comforts she enjoys in this country.
She infers lateral violence Maori beating up Maori is because of the Colonials? Maori were committing horrific atrocities to each other long before the English landed here!
Who are the majority now committing violence on woman and children, stop trying to blame others and start taking some responsibility for yourselves for a change.
Also in the Treaty of Waitangi the Chiefs did cede Sovereignty to Queen Victoria [another lie saying they didn’t], since when would a Queen of Britain ever form a partnership with a handful of natives only, excuse me!
1860 at Kohimarama, 20 years on after the Treaty, where the meeting of many of the Chiefs who had signed, gathered to say they were happy with the Treaty and fully understood Queen Victoria’s Sovereignty over them and all the people of NZ.
The Chiefs were well versed, the Missionaries had taught many English well and about God and it could be said they had a better understanding than you Ms Elder!
C HUMPHREYS, Katikati
The Editor, (Sent to the Dominion Post 29/1/19)
Lost in Translation(?)
Only one legitimate Treaty namely TeTiriti o Waitangi maori language version with a Preamble and 3 Articles a benign document all Kiwis could live with plus one genuine final Hobson/Busby English language draft (aka Littlewood draft) which cross-translates perfectly with the signed TeTiriti whereas the bogus/false Freeman version doesn’t.
No signed EnglishTreaty and Hobson stated Treaty signed at Waitangi on 6 February1840 was the only Treaty.
Translating one page /500 words into 30 languages is nonsense.
Once Treaty was signed, almost immediately redundant as Sovereignty ceded by chiefs who signed, British Citizenship granted and maori land sale rules all in place so 3 Articles were satisfied with the coup de grace being absolutely no reference to any Treaty Principles, Partnership nor Fisheries, Forests, Rivers, etc. in either TeTiriti or Littlewood draft!.
The Treaty promised only what was contained in the 3Articles.
In fact wasn’t a treaty as not made between nations but simply an agreement between the Crown and a group of disparate warring maori tribes represented by 52 chiefs at Waitangi with eventually 542 signatories all ceding sovereignty.
However, in reality sovereignty was acquired by the Acts of State (May1840) confirmed by QueenVictoria’s Royal Charter of 16 November1840.
ROB PATERSON, Matapihi
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 18/1/19)
In reply to W. Shaw letter January 18th in our history book it reads Beside gods, the natives believed in the existence of other beings who lived in communities, built pas, and were occupied with similar pursuits to those of men. These were called Patu-paearehe the chief residence were on the tops of lofty hills and they are said to have been the spiritual occupants of the country prior to the arrival of Maori. The Wanganui natives state that when they first came to reside on the banks of the river, almost all the chief heights were occupied by the Patu-paearehe.
The patu-paearehe were only seen early in the morning, and are represented as being white, and clothed in white garments of the same form and texture as their own; in fact they may be called ‘the children of the mist”.
They are supposed to be of large size and may be regarded as giants. They are seldom seen alone, but general in large numbers; they are loud speakers and delight in playing on the putorino (flute).
They are said to nurse their children in their arms the same as Europeans and not to carry them in the Maori style, on the back or hips.
If you look at a $1.20 stamp you will see on it a Patupairehe, there are descendant of the Patupairehe still remaining here with golden hair and green eyes of the ancestors.
IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Rotorua Daily Post13/1/18)
In response to the pack attack on A N Christie (letters 9/1/18).
Jackie Evans - agreed te reo is an official language of New Zealand, but it is not the COMMON language and I doubt that te reo will ever be the common language of New Zealand.
Noel Jory - ‘first language of Aotearoa’. Aotearoa is a mythical name for our country, secondly please produce a written pre European document in what you call the ‘first language’. Even the ToW was first drafted in English and then translated into Maori.
Maori language was prohibited in schools at the request of the Maori elders of the time, all children of those times were physically punished for misdemeanours, not just Maoris.
Ruth Thomas – English is not a legislated official language of New Zealand. Further those that push the ‘te reo needs to be normalised....’ barrow do not realise how sinister normalising te reo is. It is key to enable the Maori sovereignty movement to impose their self-serving agenda (tribalism and control) onto New Zealand.
I wonder if this is what the majority of New Zealanders really want?
GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Rotorua Daily Post 7/1/19)
S White ( Post, 7/1/19) refers to Te Reo as our "indigenous language". It is not for the simple reason that Maoris are not indigenous, despite what the ignorant UN said. Maoris arrived at a more-or-less accurately known time only a few centuries ago, which disqualifies them from being indigenous, and proceeded to slaughter our truly indigenous people, very few of whom survive today.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor, (Sent to The Press 6/1/19)
Recently you printed a letter of mine pointing out that as the Stone Age Maori culture had no writing, books or libraries, it was fatuous for the City Council to give its new Library a Maori name.
You printed a response from K Gillard making the absurd claim that as there had been a Stone Age in Europe, my comments were groundless. She seems unaware that European civilization has progressed a long way from the Stone Age in ways too numerous to mention.
There followed a letter from G Mitten, saying much the same - did they collude? - and suggesting that as I reside in Nelson it was not my business.
Well, Christchurch is my birthplace, with associations for seven generations of my family. Can any ex-Rarotongan newbie say anything to compare?
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Press 2/1/19)
Gerry Mitten ('Press", 1/1/19) "wonders why", living in Nelson, I have any interest in Christchurch affairs.
Let me inform him. Christchurch is my birthplace; my parents and paternal grandparents all lived and died there.
It was my home for 56 years; I brought up a family there and three of them and my late wife graduated from Canterbury University.
I was critically injured in the 2011 earthquake and evacuated to Nelson by Life Flight aircraft three weeks later when it was safe to do so.
Nevertheless, as no friend of political correctness, I deplore the behaviour of the Christchurch City Council, so besotted with all things Maori, that it takes the idiotic step of giving its new library a Maori name.when libraries are purely a part of our European heritage. It is as bad - and likely to be more lasting - than Nelson having a Maori man usurp the role of Santa Claus
BRUCE MOON, Nelson