Unpublished Letters 2020

Dear Editor (Sent to the Hawkes Bay Today 17/11/20)

REGIONAL COUNCIL SHOULD EXPLAIN MAORI CONSTITUENCY RUSH

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council should explain the rush to vote today (Wednesday, November 17) on having Maori constituencies, and give reasons for the need for such an arrangement.

A Maori ward is a significant change in voting arrangements in our district. Citizens are entitled to have a say.

If the regional council wishes to move on such a proposal, it should at least show that it supports the democratic process and let our community vote on whether such a proposal should proceed.

If under-representation is the reason for such a move, the council should also explain exactly how Maori are under-represented on the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

After all, the council has a three-member Maori Partnership Group.

It also has the Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee to represent eight treaty settlement groups.

And it looks like two of the nine current councillors have Maori ancestry.

MIKE BUTLER, Hastings

Dear Editor (Sent to the Rotorua Daily Post 17/11/20)

CHANGE OF HOUSE NAMES ROTORUA BOY’S HIGH SCHOOL

While I support the school principal suggesting that the four school houses may need a name change, I Don’t think we should forget all named were very important mariners in world, not just English history.

What appals me is that Mr. Grinter has linked his suggestion to “Slavery & Colonialism”. What arrant nonsense.

Mr. Grinter would do better if he had every senior student prepare an essay on the life, times and accomplishments of those named for each house. A very simple 15-minute Google search would reveal the following, plus much more.

Three of the four had died well before our country was known to any European.

Those three were all explorers that contributed greatly to world knowledge.

The other fought and won a major sea battle 35 years before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Had he lost the battle the predominant language of this country may have become French or Spanish. Dwell on that for a few seconds! No treaty would have eventuated under either!

Only one of the four ever ventured into the Pacific, but even then, was never nearer than 12000km to this country.

All four were alive when slavery was common across the world. It was however abolished by Britain in 1833, yet was still being practiced here at the time of the treaty signing.

I very much doubt whether any of the four ever indulged in cannibalism either.

Change the names Mr Grinter if you wish, but don’t deliberately twist or bury history as you do so.

MURRAY REID, Cambridge

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Southland Times 18/11/20)

It is reported (Stuff, 17/11/20, 11:25) that according to Gore Main School principal Glenn Puna, at a Southland Principals’ Association conference last year, cultural trainer Raiha Johnson​ “explained” the importance of incorporating tikanga Māori by drawing a circle with a line and stating that “[i]f schools were meeting Treaty of Waitangi obligations,, the line would be straight down the middle with equal shares between Māori and the crown.”

This, Mr Puna, and everybody else, should note, is an utter falsehood, a gross distortion of the truth, and if nobody at the conference challenged it, then I am astounded at the brazen effrontery of whoever invented this tale and the profound ignorance of Southland principals and Raiha Johnson who apparently accepted it.

The Treaty of Waitangi was a short, simple and straightforward agreement by which the Maori chiefs ceded such sovereignty as each possessed completely and for ever to the Queen and all Maoris were granted the same rights as the people of England. That, in essence, is all.

Whatever the Minister of Education or anybody else may say, it is completely false and utterly absurd to claim that any school has any “Treaty of Waitangi obligations” whatever.

Again, claiming the existence of “equal shares [of anything] between Māori and the crown” has not a vestige of truth in it.

If the compound of ignorance and blind acceptance of such falsehoods is typical of schoolteachers in Southland or indeed anywhere in New Zealand, then they are displaying a degree of incompetence which renders them unfit to perform the vital task of educating our country’s children. What my old Bluff teacher and mentor, Johnny Gardiner, would have thought of them, I cannot imagine!

BRUCE MOON, Nelson - Bluff schoolboy, 1938-1946

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 15/9/20)

Pakeha have been blamed for stopping Maoris speaking their native tongue in school, many times they say they were strapped for doing this. But it was not the Pakeha, it was the Minister of Education Sir Apirana Ngata the great hero, who stopped them doing this. He knew that the only way maori could make progress was to learn English. Thousands of Maoris live in Australia, what do they speak?

Maoris are to be found all over the world – their language is English or local idiom. The Dutch have given up teaching Dutch in many cases: Russians speak good English. The international language is no longer French but English.

In a similar vein the Pakehas have been blamed for not observing tapus and stopping ‘tohungas’ practising native medical cures. Who did this The Minister of Health sir Maui Pomare – another famous Maori, so it is that prominent Maoris and Pakehas have been concerned over all New Zealanders education, health and welfare for many many years.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the River City Press 13/9/20)

I came across Maori Language Week in your River city Press paper about “Maori words that you are likely to come across’ and found two mistakes that you have made Aotearoa Land of the long white cloud” (the Maori name of NZ.

Fact 1 New Zealand has never been called Aotearoa. Aotearoa is totally absent from the Tiriti of Waitangi and so in any situation or law which refers to the Treaty, use of “Aotearoa” is inconsistent and must be unacceptable. It betrays the history and origins of new Zealand and should be treated accordingly.

Old records show that the Aotea waka brought the Moriori to New Zealand not Maori.

“Nu Tirani appears in the Treaty 8 times.” Aotearoa did not appear.

Tangata Whenua (local ) people of the land)

Fact 2 Professor Ranginui Walker passed head of Maori Studies at Auckland University had this to say. The traditions are quite clear on one point, whenever crew disembarked there were already tangata whenua (prior inhabitants). which means ancient people.

The true meaning for tangata whenua is the “Ancient ones” or “The people before us”. He didn’t say his people.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 7/9/20)

The greatest treasure the Pakehas have given to the Maori, is their language in written form, patiently written down from chiefs, tohungas and wise men. “Their oral history had been a strictly factual record, passed inviolate down the generations. Each preserved what was important to it at the time, magnifying its own success, passing over its failures, justifying its present actions”,

“In court the overriding concern of the “Hapu: was to gain a final grant of as much as possible of the land to which they prefer a claim and the elders used al their ingenuity in arguing the case”

The native Land Court “IN the last decades of the century the Native Land Court became a national institution which touched the lives and interest of Maoris”

“The old people became almost professional court-goers within their district. This constituted a great re-union where people camped with their families, dogs and horses”

The Court became the instrument of major social change. A new generation (from Treaty days) need not know their history but only remember the names of the block in which they had an interest.

The old Maori tribes had no idea of owning land, but held to the territory by conquest or defence the bush was their fighting territory and the “trails” their claim in the Treaty of Waitangi.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 27/8/20)

There is no wording to base a ‘partnership’ on in the Tiriti o Waitangi, and yes protection and ‘participation’ was granted to ALL New Zealanders in Article 3 - not just Maori as Kalleisha Kawerau-Wade opines (BoP Times 25/8/20).

Democracy is based on giving equal rights to individuals. Giving special rights or privileges to groups, however configured, cannot be good.

Te Tiriti did not encourage bi-culturalism - 'He iwi tahi tatou'.

Further she seems unaware that Maori arrived here by seacraft, only a few hundred years before Europeans, therefore are not indigenous.

In her second letter (27/8/20) she writes of a ‘Maori voice’, they already have a voice as New Zealanders, anything else is separatism.

Maori wards/seats are separate, race-based positions on Councils reserved for people identifying as Maori – how can this not be separatism?

GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 26/8/20)

Denise locket letter 26th In the Chronicle Tells us that Denise has never done any research on New Zealand. Maori never owned land they only “occupied” it for as long as they could defend it. Maori had acquired New Zealand from the Tangata Whenua through conquest or intermarriage and then constantly fought over it and its resources for more than 400 years.

Taranaki was sold to the New Zealand Company by the few remaining Maoris after the “bloody” Waikato siege of 1830/35.

By 1840 large areas of land had been sold by the chiefs to people from other lands. After Te Rauparha had attached and virtually depopulated Maori in the South Island, many of the chiefs travelled to New South Wales where they sold large areas of the South Island.

Two thirds of New Zealand was sold or had contacts over 1000 deeds of sale are still held in the New South Wales supreme courts.

In 1946 Eruera Tirikatene wrote on behalf of Ngai Tahu people “my settlement is a final one”,Ngai Tahu have been paid off in full and final settlements over four times already. Akaroa for instance, was sold no fewer than nine times! They sold their last piece of land in 1864, and within four years had lodged the first claims for compensation.

Of course you don’t here anything about the real tangata whenua who had occupied New Zealand before Maori.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor (Sent to the Northland Age & Northern Advocate 8/8/20)

From the words of Allan Duff in the 1991” A school of thought emanating from Maori radicals further reiterated this charge that the terrible white had forced his values, his culture on you, the innocent Maori ”Except you couldn’t push away the obvious evidence that heavy alcohol consumption was not one of the enforced values. Nor had you seen, ever, one of these enforcers stuffing a cigarette into a Maori mouth and making him/her smoke it”

To get to the bare, inglorious facts, that the Maoris facts, that the Maoris are, chiefly responsible for their own woes”. There is a further problem: reading and writing, We, the Maori, inherited an oral tradition. To pass on our knowledge and information as the main means of self-expression”.

“I put the spotlight on it, as one reason to partly explain our failure.” We have limited understanding of the world by HOLDING IN HIGH REGARD THE WRITTEN WORD”

“Without it, there is no chance of making it in this modern world.”

So when I hear people advocating traditional Maori weaving or carving, and claiming them as ‘life skills’ it not only appals, it disgusts. It is quite simply claiming something which is demonstrably untrue. Weaving and carving are not life skills. They are recreation skills”.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 24/7/20)

Just what is a fair deal ? The Treaty of Waitangi was intended to simply give the Maori a fair deal in exchange for his sovereignty. The fisheries, forests, and land on which the Maori depended for food were the economic factors then prevailing. The economic climate is vastly different today.

“No longer does the Maori go to the forests or the sea for sustenance, the supermarket has changed all that:” and we are still giving the Maoris a fair deal. To quote just a few instances”.Social security, for example, with its child allowance (best thing that ever happened to Maori, maintenance of solo mums, the dole for those out of work and so on. Then there is free education and the opportunity for any Maori to rise to the highest positions in church and state.

In yet another way the Pakehas has been generous to judge from the rarity of full-blooded Maori in our community, and the pale skins of many of those still claiming to be Maori.’

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 23/7/20)

We live in a time when the move to separate church and state has been persistent and largely successful, and Christianity is definitely viewed as “unwoke” by the left. Consequently, I am frequently surprised when a prayer in te reo is made to start many council or tertiary education functions in public spaces, particularly as the majority of attendees would have no idea of what is being intoned.

Then in the Herald article “Te reo learning on the rise” (22 July 2020), we read that primary schools (even those with few or no Maori on the roll) are leading prayers and blessings in te reo to start and end the day, as well as at morning tea and lunch.

This is substantially more religion imposed on the children than when I was young. In fact, I remember nothing other than 30mins of Bible stories per week in the public primary school I attended. There were certainly no prayers at assembly or school functions, in English or otherwise.

So it appears that our councils and education services are not at all secular, but simply favour one religion over others.

FIONA MACKENZIE, Whangaparaoa

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle & Northland Age 18/7/20)

The statement by Potonga Neilson, in the Chronicle 18th July 2020 is very interesting, “if you leave the land you leave all rights to it”.

He seems to forget that in 1835 the Waikato completely annihilated the Taranaki tribes with one third being slaughtered , one third taken as slaves and the rest fleeing south. Taranaki left the land, therefore lost all rights to it. The ones that fled south travelling to the Chatham island and slaughtered or farmed the Moriori like swine into virtual extinction.

He also seems to forget the Treaty of Waitangi only gave tangata Maori the same rights as the people of England if the chiefs gave up their individual governments/lores to the Queen. The Treaty made no laws or recognised Maori lore.

The laws in New Zealand were made by Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840. It made New Zealand into a British Colony on the 3 May 1841 with a Governor and Constitution that set up our political, legal and justice systems under one flag and one law, irrespective of race colour or creed.

I cannot understand why Potonga thinks the Treaty has not been honoured, the tangata Maori chiefs gave up their governments and the Queen gave them the same rights as the people of England, plus the Maori Land Court, Maori trustees and Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development ) not mentioned in the Treaty.

If Potonga wants the Treaty honoured, then government would have to take away The Maori Land Court, Maori trustees and Te Puni Kokiri (Ministry of Maori Development) plus, many other special rights to Maori. Does he really want that?

IAN BROUGHAM, Tawhero

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 16/7/20)

Re Nicola Patrick Letter July 16 She said that she liked the now- historic debate on spelling Whanganui with an H, she said she did research putting weight on expert views, I would be interested to know where she got her expert views from. Nicola certainly did not get it from the treaty document of 1840 that the Wanganui chiefs signed “Chief of Wanganui”. With out the H. Nicola also did not get it from the Waitaha Paramount Chief who said the name belongs to them they were a pre-Maori people who were Caucasian and lived in Wanganui and spelt it without the H in it and were here over 200 Years before the arrival of Maori.

Nicola needs to tell the people of Wanganui who advised her on the spelling so they can judge her credibility for themselves. The Wanganui paper won’t print this letter but some one else will

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor (Sent to the Northland Age 9/7/20 & Northern Advocate 15/7/20)

Apparently Cirran Payne (Letters 4/7/20) is unaware of pre-treaty female infanticide, slavery and cannibalism when propagandising about the fine Maori character and how well Maori looked after their children.

I am more than happy to go back beyond 1970 to dispel her/his Maori land loss myth, one only has to read the hundreds of Turtons Deeds (Victoria University) to see that Maori sold most of the land willingly. The Treaty of Waitangi and most statutes, like the Land Claims Ordinance 1841 were to protect Maori land sellers from opportunist European land buyers, and or to help Maori adjust to changing times, however today’s crop of agitators twist these statutes to put them in bad light.

Maybe there was some societal discrimination/segregation towards Maori in the young colony but thankfully it isn’t so today. In early times many Maori lived on communal land did not pay taxes so were deemed unentitled to participate in the housing or government support schemes, other criteria also applied to these schemes for all applicants.

However, there is societal discrimination/segregation toward non-Maori today – a non-Maori is unable to join a tribe, unable to become a joint owner of Maori land, unable to benefit from the many Maori only privileges that exist today, prohibited from using a Maori name for a business or using Maori designs on sale goods.

Power should not be ‘shared’ as she/he asserts, in a democratic society the majority elected must govern otherwise democracy is undermined, tribalism and separatism likely to prevail.

Payne prattles the Maori nationalist mantra “what is good for Maori has to be good for us all” – isn’t it strange that what is good for all New Zealanders is never good enough for the activist Maori or their European sycophants?

GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei

Dear Editor (Sent to the Dominion Post, date unknown)

As a proud European descendant of enlightened colonisers I get angry about Maori wanting to destroy the statues in our cities. Captain Cook was a great, humane discoverer, well worth celebrating.

Maori have no right to demand the removal of statues in European cities. Only individual residents (of whatever race, of course) have that right (and the right to erect them).

In 1842 two entities, Crown and Maori, agreed to the Treaty of Waitangi – which we can all be justifiably proud of. But hey, weren’t all our cities eventually built on land acquired legally from Maori? And didn’t the Treaty guarantee each of the two parties that their land would be theirs forever to deal with as they wished?

There was no urbanisation of Maori until the 1960s. For one and a quarter century Maori lived “out there” - and we Europeans lived “in here”. Nobody in 1842 foresaw that collective Maori (i.e. Iwis and Maraes) would eventually move onto European land. But I am happy they did - we are now finally becoming one people (as Governor Hobson hoped for).

The Treaty gives collective Maori no right to poke their noses into what goes on in our European cities - in fact it precludes it.

ANDY ESPERSEN, Nelson

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Hawkes Bay Today, Taranaki Daily News 5/7/20)

Maoris became British people, subject to British Laws. The treaty makes us all British Maoris and Pakeha.

“Some have said that the confiscation of lands were wrong, and that they contravened the articles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty placed in the hands of the Queen of England the sovereignty and authority to make laws.” Some sections of the Maori people violated that authority”

Here was a solemn treaty which removed the authority of the tribal laws and chiefs who had a united law over their people. The Maori chiefs gave away all authority and vested it in the queen. It was the chiefs who bespoke the land and gave it away. They had the power even for life and death. These were the powers they surrendered to the Queen. This was the understanding of each tribe.

“War arose and blood spilt. This was a terrible war – these were Warriors, well armed, with special knowledge of the country, who terrorised large parts of New Zealand. The British Government despatched many regiments to protect the white settlers and to subdue the rebellion. It was a long hard campaign with much lost of life. These wars were called the “Maori Wars: by the settlers with some justification, yet modern Maoris prefer to call them “Land Wars”.

At the Treaty it was said by officials “we are one people”, but fanatics trying to make us two peoples.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Weekend Sun 27/6/20)

Where now was the one People who were protected by British Law. The land Courts were the place for redress and they have been widely used by Maoris since 1862. People outside the courts waiting for money seventy years ago.

Before considering the question of huge payments to the Maori, (now British people),let us consider what they own to the Pakeha tradition.

The Maori did not have The basis of life which had developed in much of rest of the world. They were as a rule, cold – insufficient warm clothes. They had no transport except for canoes. They had no beds or bedding – hence their great desire for woollen blankets.

They had no pots or cooking utensils, other than calabashes. Maoris had no axes, so they couldn’t clear even patches of forest. The Canterbury Plains were set on fire by Maoris, said to happen accidentally. They had no wheels, although these were invented before the age of the Egyptians. They did not know how to make pottery, yet this one of the ancient arts. They had no roads, only tracks through the bush – no carts, no drays wagons, or even wheelbarrows! The list is endless – they were a primitive people but not ignorant – they were resourceful, but lacked skills. Lets face it, Maoris had very basic living conditions, they were utterly depended upon the chiefs, and were subject to all kinds of fears and superstitions. The only educated class were their young chiefs, who were handed the history of their tribes, by oral learning. Music and art were of the simplest kind, and learned only by a few. Tribes fought tribes and slaves kept by many of them.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age & Wanganui Chronicle 13/6/20)

Front page of Saturday Chronicle Maori Party Co Leader Ngarewa- Packer (European Name) says is it time to rewrite history, as long as you allow the true history out.

She says there’s no better place to start than Pakaitore / Moutoa Gardens, the true fact is Pakaitore was never at Moutoa Gardens it was further down the river and washed away by a flood.

The Mayor said that he would relish the change to re-examine history with input from iwi and hapu, but he does not want any input from the rest of us pre-Maori.

Hamish also mention his relationship with tangata whenua was pretty appalling. Well Hamish the tangata whenua were the people here before the Maori. Yes lets bring the truth out.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald & Sunday Star Times 7/6/20)

Re article by Marama Davidson in Sunday star times 7 June. ( Tragedy deserves action not words) How can we achieve equality in New Zealand. We must force our politicians to abolish all racial separatist organizations, agencies and legislation by 2020 . All Legislation and Government departments which refer to a particular must be abolished.

This could be achieved by putting pressure on the political parties and the politicians standing for office in the 2020 election. There is no reason why we cannot have one law/ legislation for all New Zealanders and stop this conspiracy which is rapidly destroying our Nation.

The Treaty must be put to rest and the constitution of one people, one law, one land, enacted into law. We encouraged South Africa to do this, it is now our turn.

Are you Marama prepared to do this.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 5/6/20)

When Hongi returned from his raid on southern tribes in1821 he brought back 2000 prisoners.

One of the latest cannibal feasts was held at Ohariu by Te Rauparaha when 150 of Muaupoko tribe went to the ovens.

These were some of the Warriors – land and power were their prizes and feasts at the end. They could not stop UTU revenge was their motivation and they had no way of stopping these horrible wars. Slavery was common and life was cheap – under the main post of the meeting houses a slave was killed for good luck.

So came the whalers, the convicts and the immigrants and with them firearms.

The Maori chiefs and land owners sold their land for muskets – not once but many times.

Sir Apirana Ngata reports “At times of the Treaty, t he chiefs were disputing among themselves the titles and boundaries between their lands. They fought with guns, with patu, to take by conquest the land of others, or to bar the way of others intent on conquest”.

“The chiefs arose and began selling the land whether it was their own or someone else’s” as recorded by Sir William Morris Chief Judge of the supreme court. Parliament therefore acted and passed the Maori Land Act of 1862.

Nowhere in the entire world has any native been treated with such dignity and given a treaty at their own request , to protect themselves (the Maori)

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age & Northern Advocate 21/5/20)

Headlines sourced from the media and compiled on the ‘Breaking Views’ site 11 May 2020 were disturbing reading.

The first headline read “Māori and Pacific patients could be prioritised for elective surgery by greater Auckland and Northland DHBs “, in other words these people may get elective surgery before other New Zealanders based on nothing more than their racial make up – Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon should be all over this nonsense being a perfect example of race based preferences.

The next headline read “Far North Māori who set up road checkpoints to stop Covid-19 spread now carrying out patrols with police”. This is totally illegal under Summary Offences Act and the Lockdown Rules. Are our police officers so inept that they cannot enforce the law and need untrained opportunist maori interests patrolling with them? I venture it won’t be long before our duly authorised law enforcement will be redundant and Maori/tribal lore will prevail.

Another headline read “Should Tai Tokerau face any threat to it’s safety and wellbeing in the future, we can look on these times as a guide to action”. And there we have it, a precedent has been set during the ‘pandemic’ with unauthorised activists setting up illegal tribal roadblocks on our public highways, and in future for any nebulous excuse, things are now in place for more of this illegal tribalist disruptive intimidating action.

All Kiwis should be sitting bolt upright when reading those headlines, they reek of the path that South Africa travelled down that has ended in a trainwreck economy and human misery.

GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 17/5/20)

Martin Luther King said I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their Character. I have a dream today.

In New Zealand today the colour of the Maori skin, ( or some hypothetical maoriness) is becoming the colour of privilege. Special schools, Maori nests, scholarships, loans and donations from the Maori Affairs dept. are some of the things available to Maori today.

Be the colour of the skin be ever so pale, they claim their rights because some distant relative was Maori their iwi or hapu. It is strange to watch former tribal enemies join together to wring extra privileges from weak Pakeha Governments. Do not forget it is Pakeha money from taxes, which is poured out by the millions to Maori – it doesn’t come from ‘cargo cult’ or a gold mine.

I claim that our families have made as much a contribution to the life of New Zealand in six generations as any Maori family.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald )

I read in the Weekend Herald (9 May) the wacky idea to give Maori and Pasifica patients priority in a health system emerging from lock-down. Racial privilege is always unacceptable and particularly so in our health system. If you move some people up the waiting list then other people have to be moved down. To suggest that ethnicity and maybe deprivation could be included in the assessing priorities “to make the reforms more palatable” is simply an attempt to put lipstick on pig.

Maori health problems come from living a Maori lifestyle; too much smoking, too much drinking and poor dietary choices resulting multiple health problems. Sir Peter Gluckman pointed out the need to reduce smoking to improve Maori life expectancy*. Iwi need to step up to improve Maori health by promoting healthier Maori lifestyles.

As for Dr David Tipene -Leach (Chairman of the Maori Medical Practitioners) comment that “if you get it right for Maori you get it right for everybody”, I fail the see how people who have been bumped down the priority rankings would agree with that statement.

Nobody should be disadvantaged because of their ethnicity and nor should anybody be advantaged for exactly the same reasons.

RICHARD PRINCE, Tauranga

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Bay of Plenty Times 8/5/20)

It is entirely possible that most New Zealanders have never read the “Treaty of Waitangi” although there has been plenty of opportunity to do so. It is clear that many activists and agitators have never read the Treaty – nor do they recognise the laws of the Land (NZ Law) which were originally British Laws. (Dec.1994) These racists claim no loyalty to anyone & desire to set up Maori rule 7 sovereignty (Ken Mair) They have attacked the One tree hill landmark with a Pakeha chainsaw; tried to sink a vessel on the Waikato river by setting it on fire, and vandalised a statue of a NZ prime Minister (John Balance ) at Wanganui; also stealing a gun from the museum of New Zealand.

When questioned, they claim the Land under the “Treaty of Waitangi” but have no intention of abiding by it. These people are no Maori Chiefs or Elders but part-Maori activists that are after power and monetary gain. Auckland residents are aware of the fiasco of Maori claims at Orakei and Bastion Point. Prim Minister Muldoon at the time had an agreement with the tribal elders which settled their claims for $3,000, - Jo Hawke stirred up trouble and managed to coerce the present Government into parting with another $3,000,000 to settle the same claims and the weak and ineffective Government ended up by giving them the land .

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate 11/4/20)

By the 15th of February 1840, many chiefs had freely sold over two thirds of New Zealand to people from other lands to help buy muskets and finance their intertribal wars.

The New Zealand Company was interested in colonising New Zealand and had purchased or had contracts over large areas of land in the Wellington region, with contracts to buy land at Wanganui, Taranaki and the South Island.

The missionaries and others had bought land in Northland including the British resident James Busby to build his kit-set home. American whalers had 28 whaling stations dotted around the coast as well as land at Russell where James Clendon, the American Consulate had built his house. This later became the first Government House before the seat of Government was moved to Auckland and later to Wellington.

The French had also bought large areas of land in the North and South Islands and had announced they were about to annex New Zealand.

The Maori feared the French and wanted to put Britain between them and France.

By 1840 there were many farms, boat building and general businesses operating within New Zealand by more than 2000 people from other countries.

Wellington and Russell had established townships with flourishing communities and businesses but some of these people also took liberties due to the lack of law and order.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Fielding-Rangitikei Herald 6/4/20)

In an article by S Kilminster in the Feilding-Rangitikei Herald for 19th March 2020, it is reported that Ngati Raukawa and associates have lodged a claim concerning 130,000 hectares “taken by deceit” in 1869.

Yet at 5:18pm on 2nd June 2012, RNZ News reported that “The Government on Saturday signed a $50 million Deed of Settlement for all outstanding historical Treaty claims with Ngati Raukawa.”

It would appear that Ngati Raukawa have long memories when it suits them and very short ones when it doesn’t. No doubt, Eddie Durie will have an explanation.

BRUCE MOON, Nelson

Dear Editor, (Kiwi Frontline 25/3/20)

Caroline Pukeroa-McKinney (Northland Age 17/3/20) ‘Begging’ is appropriate wording as the actual letter written by the chiefs (1831) states “we have heard that the tribe of Marian [the French] is at hand, coming to take away our land. Therefore we pray thee to become our friend and the guardian of these islands, lest the teasing of other tribes should come near us, and lest strangers should come and take away our land.” - it is clear these brave warrior chiefs were in mortal fear of the French and knew they could not ‘sort the problem’ so prayed (begged) for help from the British. http://tinyurl.com/rtuww35

Clearly the French threat was the priority concern in that letter, with ‘teasing of other tribes’ (Maori tribal warfare) being the second consideration, land annexation thirdly, and lastly it was the few unruly settlers. Activist Maori nationalists bear on the latter.

Further, only the one-eyed ungrateful would label 'requested help' as an ‘invasion’

The bogus English version treaty has only had validity since the mid 1970s, and Pukeroa-McKinney is correct that the racially stacked and biased Waitangi Tribunal do use the differences between the two treaty texts to polemically transfer NZs wealth and assets to Maori, in doing so divide our society. There is no ambiguity in Te Tiriti so Contra Proferentem does not apply.

It is not only David Rankin that maligns the controversial Waitangi Tribunal, Brian Priestley MBE says “It would be hard to imagine any public body less well-organised to get at the truth". http://tinyurl.com/twngyj6

Dr Michael Bassett a noted political historian, who was a member of the Waitangi Tribunal for 10yrs, observed “what you have been dealing with for the last 30years are some very inventive people stretching the wording of the Treaty so far it is falling apart because of the games that are being played with it.” (NBR March 2005)

Tribunal history also has a strong Maori bias, Dr Byrnes says. Maori characters and stories are given much more emphasis and weight than Pakeha characters and stories. "The reports increasingly champion or advocate the Maori cause."

This is not the first time an historian has questioned the academic integrity of the history produced by the Waitangi Tribunal. Other historians - including Keith Sorrenson, Michael Belgrave and Bill Oliver - have raised similar concerns.....Other academics are also concerned, but reluctant to say anything publicly, Dr Byrnes says. http://tinyurl.com/vrnpom6

In Pukeroa-McKinney’s initial letter (27/3/20) she wrote “we (Maori) were trading internationally...” - my dictionary defines ‘internationally’ as “Thoughout the world” - Pukeroa’s spurious argument (17/3/20) appears to cover the Pacific area only? - Hardly internationally!

Lastly, I do accept that the incompatible Maori and non-Maori worldviews differ. The Maori worldview is one of tribalism which has inequality as it’s base and the non-Maori worldview is one of democracy which is based on equality - see Elizabeth Rata http://tinyurl.com/w4x4wg6

It appears that tribalist malcontents want our beautiful country to become the Zimbabwe of the South Pacific.

GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 23/3/20)

A police man from Dargaville District Constable Corbett had a passion for early history of the region as it just happened the original journals covering policing activites for the late 1800’s were housed at the Ruawai police station. During quiet times Constable Corbett loved to dip into these journals which he called day books’ and read extracts penned by earlier constables.

One historical detail that he told friends about a lands department survey in 1860’s of a Hugh cavern system on the Southern end of Poutu Peninsula where there were many thousands of skeletons. When Governor Bowen came to the northern Wairoa in the late 1860’s he met with 600 Maoris assembled from all over Northland at Te Kopuru. He put it to those assembled the question of ‘who did these skeletons belong to’ Maori replied they did not know who these peoples were and to ‘do with them what you wish, they are not our people” This is recorded in Bowen’s paper and journals of the time which can be read in the Alexander Turnbull library.

Around 60,000 of these skeletons were taken to Robertson bone mill in Onehunga to be ground up as ‘dust fertiliser’ over a three year period. There are still many more in sites around, they did not get them all.

A visiting forensic Pathologist from England with over 50 years experience who examined some of the remains that still existed and a DNA was done by the Pathologist and his results were that they came from a race of people living in Wales over 3500 years ago.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Waitomo News 15/3/20)

Thank you for publishing my letter (12/3/20) and for correcting my slip in spelling “Rangiaowhia”.

Tom Roa did write to me saying I was “deceitful” and “inciting racial hatred”. Elsewhere, carried away by his own rhetoric, he has described the Rangiaowhia affray as a “war crime”. While the church-burning lie seems at last to have been discredited, he has now substituted the equally false tale of the destruction of a “whare karakia”. This was in fact a whare full of armed rebels, one of whom, Hoani Papita, shot Sergeant McHale when asked to surrender – an “atrocity” in terms of your own definition, leading to the destruction of the whare and deaths on both sides.

Rangiaowhia was, as you say, a “very productive village” thanks to horticultural advice provided by benevolent Governor Grey but as the supplier of food to the rebels at Paterangi, it was fully involved in the rebellion.

You say “someone decided it was British sovereign territory” as indeed it was, this being established over the whole country in 1840 after 540 chiefs ceded their sovereign rights to the Queen. It is thus nonsense to describe its recovery from the rebels as an “invasion”. This does nothing to improve race relations in New Zealand, an objective which I most earnestly desire.

BRUCE MOON, Nelson

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northern Advocate & Northland Age 14/3/20)

Hone Heke’s rebellion against Crown governance had nothing to do with “breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi” as the article ‘1845 Battle of Kororareka Remembered’ (Northern Advocate 12/3/20) states

Heke’s ‘concerns’ were that the Governor relocated New Zealand’s capital from Kororareka to Auckland, most of the ships that had formerly made landfall at the Bay of Islands now tied up at Auckland.

Heke was angered by the loss of most of his formerly lucrative customs and berthage revenues and also the loss of money from supplying ship girls to sex-starved sailors.

Even more infuriating perhaps was the mana of hosting the Governor had now gone to Ngapuhi’s traditional enemies, Ngati Whatua.

Heke is noted as the first to sign the Treaty and the first in Maoridom to breach that which he had signed.

GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age & Northern Advocate 14/3/20)

Astonishing! - ‘Māori land not included in court action over unpaid rates: Far North District Council’ (Northern Advocate 11/3/20).

If other freehold landholders do not pay their rates councils will go through the debt collection process which could force the sale of the property, so why does this not apply to Maori?

Nanaia Mahuta’s new bill to Parliament allowing councils to write off rates arrears on Māori freehold land is racist preferential treatment and disadvantages everyone else as a result.

In a colour blind society all land owners should be treated equally for rating purposes. i.e. there should be no racial discrimination against those who are not of Maori descent.

Further, the Far North District Council should not be cowering to ‘warning shots’ (threats) from Matthew Tukaki an ex ‘puppet’ of the controversial United Nations.

Appeasing militant Maori will result in further demands for special racial privileges & rights, vital resources, funding and assets, which will increase their power and control of New Zealand.

GEOFF PARKER, Whangarei

Dear Editor, (Sent to the NZ Herald 26/2/20)

So Taxpayers pay $18 million and apologize to Moriori survivors for neglect of their ancestors' appeals in the 1860s.

Well, how about an apology and a few million from Ngati Mutunga and Ngati Tama for virtually exterminating them before the Treaty of Waitangi was even thought about?

BRUCE MOON, Nelson

Letter to editor- Sir/madam (Sent to the NZ Herald 23/2/20)

My response is regarding the article 'Rangiaowhia - War crime' in Stuff [19.2.20] and possibly the Herald as most of this article is just lies and your journalists should do their research before writing such articles!

There never was a massacre at Rangiaowhia, both churches were still standing till just a few years ago when one was pulled down, never burned!

Please write an article portraying the true and correct story. There are plenty of avenues to research the true and correct version of this incident, not a massacre!

It is tiresome the relentless stories to blame the so called 'Colonials’ for everything!

If it wasn’t for the Colonials, NZ would not be the prosperous country it is today, so some truth & respect please?

C HUMPHREYS, Katikati

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 7/2/20)

Article in Dominion Post Thursday 6th “what does Waitangi Day mean to you”.

Mike Smith said its kind of like independence day is for the Americans. Well New Zealand has its own independence Day which is the 3rd May when we broke away from New South Wales but our government will not recognise it.

Jim Bolger former prime minister said the treaty is our founding document of New Zealand and any attempt to disagree with that is false. This shows how little Jim Bolger knew about our history, as Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter dated 16th November 1840 is our true Founding Document, New Zealand Independence Day and our Constitution.

Jim Bolger also said, Maori would retain ownership of their lands and water. Another false statement as Busby’s final draft which was translated into Maori, the Tititi o Waitangi does not mention land and water. The invasion of the Taranaki area was by the Waikato tribe, the British had to buy the land back off the Waikato, which put it in the Crown ownership.

Mai Chen, law expert and Lawyer mentioned about growing size of the indigenous population. Maori were never the indigenous. If you are of Chinese decent then it was the Chinese that bought one lot of Maori to New Zealand as slaves. Maori never had a culture they got it from the people that were living here before them.

Jeremy Wells said some iwi did not sign the treaty. Which is right but they still made claims and were paid out under the Treaty.

There’s an old saying if a lie is told often enough it becomes the truth.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 30/1/20)

Most people think the Treaty of Waitangi was New Zealand’s Founding Document, but the treaty was only an agreement between Queen Victoria and 512 Maori chiefs where the chiefs gave up their territories and governments to Britain in return for Maori becoming British Subjects with the same rights as the people of England. This allowed New South Wales to extend its boundaries to encompass all the Islands of New Zealand under one flag and one law, irrespective of race, colour or creed.

Our true Founding Document and first Constitution was Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/ Letters Patent dated the 16 November 1840, which was enacted on the 3 May 1841. This Royal Charter separated New Zealand from New South Wales and New Zealand became an Independent British Colony with a Governor and a Constitution to form a legal Government to make laws with Courts and Judges to enforce those laws. Unfortunately, Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters

Patent sits in Archives New Zealand Wellington gathering dust, completely ignored by governments and our professional historians.

While Waitangi Day February 6 must be remembered as an important day in our history, Queen Victoria Royal Charter/ Letters Patent was our true Founding Document with May 3 being New Zealand Independence Day, the day New Zealanders must all celebrate as the day New Zealand became One people, One Nation, irrespective of race, colour or creed.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor, (Sent to the Northland Age 24/1/20)

A letter from Potonga Neilson in the Wanganui Chronicle Jan 15 needs to do some research, he mentions colonisation of Aotearoa. New Zealand has never been called Aotearoa, Aotea was the name of the Moriori craft that arrived in New Zealand.

He says that the Treaty was being misinterpreted and dismantled to the advantage of the settlers government. The treaty was put together after 13 chiefs wanted protection from warring tribes. Under the Labour government a false document which were rejected notes to give Maori advantage over everyone else. He also says their land was taken from them. It was the Maori that took the land off the earlier occupiers (Ngata Hotu, Patupaiarehe etc, they also slaughtered the Moriori and the kapupungapunga to extinction these were groups of people who were here before Maori.

The South Island Waitaha taught Maori how to work with greenstone, once they learn’t that they started there slaughter of the Waitaha people. He goes on and says New Zealand is a racist country, which he is right as Maori get special rights over the rest of the people and that it will stay that way until we get a government that treats everyone the same.

In Taranaki case it was the Waikato Maoris that invaded them and took the land off them, it was the British that paid Waikato for the land and allowed Taranaki to go back on it.

IAN BROUGHAM, Wanganui

Dear Editor (Sent to the NZ Herald 13/1/20)

During the Golden Globe Awards, Ricky Gervais recently called out the rampant virtue signalling and hypocrisy of some celebrities and global corporates. How refreshing it would be if we Kiwis and the mass media followed his good example and highlighted such posturing here in NZ.

The Government’s Education and Training Bill makes an excellent target. It is pushing for secularism in our schools while simultaneously imposing, throughout the curriculum, the worshipping of tikanga and the Maori world view – two extremely vague concepts which can never be defined (even by Maori friends) yet simply cannot be challenged.

Is that not suggestive of an authoritarian and very scary religious movement? Will parents be able to opt in or even out of this frightening indoctrination?

FIONA MACKENZIE, Whangaparaoa

The Editor (Sent to the Northern Advocate 7/1/20)

LOST IN TRANSLATION

Tiriti o Waitangi (in the maori language) is the only legitimate Treaty ( 500 words) with a Preamble and 3 Articles (a benign Agreement all Kiwis could accept ) prepared from the Hobson /Busby final English draft (aka LittlewoodDraft) that cross translates perfectly with TeTiriti while the bogus Freeman version doesn’t.

There ’s no English version with Hobson clearly stating that the Treaty signed at Waitangi on 6 February1840 was the only Treaty.

Once signed the Treaty almost immediately became redundant as sovereignty was ceded by all chiefs who signed British citizenship granted, and sale of maori land rules put in place so all 3 Articles were satisfied..

Absolutely no reference to any treaty principles, partnerships, nor fisheries forests rivers etc. in TeTiriti nor Littlewood Draft- promising only what was contained in the 3 Articles.

In fact because it wasn’t made between nations not a treaty simply an agreement between the British Crown and a group of disparate warring tribes represented by 52 chiefs at Waitangi eventually gaining 542 signatures to ceding sovereignty.

In reality sovereignty was acquired by Acts of State( May1840) and Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter 16 November1840.

Yes while the Treaty was very fair it never dealt with fairness nor of course the modern day rewritten revised and fabricated things to satisfy only blatant self interest and the unjustified fatuous entitlement claims being made in 2020.

ROB PATERSON, Mount Maunganui