Sir Apirana Ngata on The Treaty

Sir Apirana Ngata is on our $50 note. He was a lawyer and then was the MP for Eastern Maori for almost 40 years. He was Minister of Native Affairs for six years.He made huge contributions to Maori land reform, language and culture.

He also wrote a booklet in 1922 on the Treaty of Waitangi, which NZPCR has usefully published online. Well worth a read to compare to what some today claim the Treaty means.

Some extracts:

There was without doubt Maori chieftainship, but it was limited in its scope to its sub-tribe, and even to only a family group. The Maori did not have authority or a government which could make
laws to govern the whole of the Maori Race.

So he says there was no Government in New Zealand prior to the Treaty.

The main purport was the transferring of the authority of the Maori chiefs for making laws for their respective tribes and sub tribes under the Treaty of Waitangi to the Queen of England
for ever.

He says Article 1 clearly transfers law making authority from the chiefs to the Crown.

What is this authority, this sovereignty that is referred to in the second article? It is quite clear, the right of a Maori to his land, to his property, to his individual right to such possessions whereby he could declare, “This is my land, there are the boundaries, descended from my ancestor so and so, or conquered by him, or as the first occupier, or so and so gave it to him, or it had been
occupied by his descendents down to me. These properties are mine, this canoe, that taiaha
(combination spear and club), that greenstone patu (club), that kumera (sweet potato) pit, that cultivation. These things are mine and do not belong to anyone else”.

He says the second article is about property rights.

This article states that the Maori and Pakeha are equal before the Law, that is, they are to share the rights and privileges of British subjects.

And the third article is about equality.