The Treaty of Waitangi; or, how New Zealand became a British Colony

In his marked antipathy to Mr. Williams and all that he did Colonel Wakefield has endeavoured to deprecate the value of these proceedings in his report to his superiors, wherein he takes the responsibility of saying, "The natives executed some paper, the purport of which they were totally ignorant," and insinuates that the whole transaction took place in an underhand way and had neither the countenance nor the assistance of the colonists.

The Ariel then crossed over to Queen Charlotte Sound, "where," says Mr. Williams in his Memoir, "we saw all who were to be seen there. We crossed over to Kapiti, Waikanae, and Otaki the stations of the Rev. O. Hadfield. The treaty was explained at all these places and signed.¹²⁴ On this visit I saw in the Bank at Wellington a map of New Zealand about six feet in length, and was told by the authorities of the New Zealand Company that the coloured portion was the property of the Company from the 38° to the 42° parallel of latitude. At this time there was no one in connection with their Company who knew anything of the language. A man named Barret could speak a few words in the most ordinary form. This man alone was the medium of communication between the Maoris and the Company in all their affairs, and the deeds of purchase were drawn up in English, not one word of which was understood by the Maoris."

It had been Mr. Williams's intention, after completing the collection of the signatures in the vicinity of Cook Strait, to proceed to the far South, soliciting the assent of the Ngai-Tahu tribe to the terms of the treaty. To this end he had already entered into an arrangement with Captain Clayton, who like the loyal sailor he was, readily agreed to forgo his more lucrative coastal trade in order that his vessel might remain at the disposal of the Government. Before this section of the voyage could be undertaken, however, it was ascertained that the Governor, deeming the mission worthy of some more ostentatious display of power than could be effected by a schooner, had commissioned Major Bunbury of the 80th Regiment to sail with Captain Nias in Her Majesty's frigate Herald,¹²⁵ for the purpose of visiting the more important Southern settlements.

On hearing of this, Mr. Williams returned with all expedition to his duties at Waimate, which place he reached on June 10, bringing with him the famous Ngati-Awa chief, Wiremu Kingi, whose anxiety to see the Governor had induced him to travel all the roadless miles which lay between Waikanae and the Bay of Islands.

On the submission of his report to the Governor, Mr. Williams was the recipient of the most hearty congratulations from Captain Hobson, who recognised in the service of the Missionary an arduous task well and faithfully performed in the interests of the Crown.

On the morning of April 28 the Herald left her anchorage in the outer harbour of the Bay of Islands, carrying with her Major Bunbury,¹²⁶ commissioned to accept the signatures of the Southern chiefs; Mr. Edward Marsh Williams engaged to act as interpreter, and a small company of marines whose presence it was thought would add somewhat to the impressiveness of the occasion. Captain Nias was authorised "to display the force of his ship along the coast," and Major Bunbury was furnished with complete instructions for the governance of his conduct in all his negotiations with the native people, which needless to say, were to be continued along the strictly honourable lines which had hitherto been observed by the Lieutenant-Governor. Pursuant to these instructions the Herald entered the Coromandel harbour next day (30th), and Major Bunbury, accompanied by Mr. Williams, landed at the house of Mr. Webster, an American whose claims to land in New Zealand have since been the subject of searching enquiry by his own country. The purpose of this visit was to arrange a time and place at which the chiefs might be invited to a korero. Monday May 4, and Mr. Webster's establishment were selected to fill these essentials, and messengers were accordingly despatched to the various surrounding pas to bid the chiefs to the conference. Hearing that the Scottish exile, Captain Stewart, the discoverer of the southern Island which bears his name, was at Mercury Bay, a special messenger was hurried off to him requesting that he would pilot the Herald in these waters, and likewise use his influence with the chiefs of Mercury Bay in the direction of securing their presence at the meeting, to both of which the sealer Captain gave a ready response.

"On the day appointed," so writes the Major, "Captain Nias, with several officers of the ship, together with Mr. Williams and myself, went on shore at 11 o'clock, but no native chiefs had at that hour assembled. A considerable number of Europeans appeared, however, to have been attracted by the report of the expected meeting. Subsequently a number of natives did assemble with six chiefs of different tribes. Mr. Williams explained the treaty; its object in consequence of the increasing influx of strangers; and that the claim for pre-emption on the part of the Crown was intended to check their imprudently selling their lands without sufficiently benefiting themselves or obtaining a fair equivalent. After a variety of objections on the part of the chiefs we succeeded in obtaining the signatures of four, one of these being the principal chief of the district the celebrated Horeta,¹²⁷ of Bannin's Island notoriety. The principal orator, an old chief named Piko, and another of inferior note, refused to sign, alleging as a reason that they wanted more time to assemble the different tribes of the Thames district, and to consult with them, when they would also sign; but that he could, for himself, see no necessity for placing himself under the dominion of any prince or queen, as he was desirous of governing his own tribe."

This policy of procrastination was obviously induced by the intelligence which had reached them of the arrest at the Bay of Islands of a native, Kiti, for the murder of Mr. Williams's shepherd, Patrick Macdonald, and of his trial and subsequent condemnation. They did not complain of the injustice of the punishment, but the whole proceeding was so novel in its character, and so dubious in its ultimate result that they felt prudence warranted a deeper reflection than the subject had yet received. They therefore hesitated before committing themselves to a policy, the end whereof they could not see.

There was also a passing difficulty with those chiefs who signed the treaty, for these gentlemen elected to entertain so exalted an idea of the Queen's munificence that they deemed the homely blanket offered to them as being altogether unworthy of so great a Sovereign's generosity, and expressed a decided preference for forage caps and scarlet cloaks. There was greater unanimity displayed over the feast of pork and potatoes which Major Bunbury had thoughtfully provided for their entertainment before he left.

After completing arrangements for securing the signatures of a few eligible chiefs who were living near the Mission station of the Rev. Mr. Preece, Major Bunbury, late in the evening of Friday the 8th, took his departure from Coromandel in the schooner Trent, chartered from Captain Bateman, and coasted round to Tauranga, a district where, in consequence of a war with the Rotorua people, the claims of the Crown had not been enthusiastically received. On Sunday, at nightfall, the vessel arrived at the entrance of the harbour, but prudent seamanship dictated the wisdom of remaining in the offing till the morning, when the treaty party landed at the Mission station and were welcomed by Mr. Stack.

"I was agreeably surprised," wrote Major Bunbury to Captain Hobson, "to learn that most of the native chiefs in this neighbourhood had already signed the treaty, the exception being the principal chief, and one or two of his friends at the Omimoetoi (Otumoetai) pa. This pa we visited the same evening, accompanied by Mr. Stack. It was a very extensive fortification, and appears to contain about one thousand men. The chief who had declined signing is a very young man, and his manner was timidly reserved and less prepossessing than most of those I had before seen. On our taking leave he made the usual remark, that he wanted to consult the other chiefs, and that he would meet us with them at the Mission station on the morrow. On the following day he did not speak until the close of the conference, and then only in private to Mr. Williams – after Mr. Stack and I had left them – to enquire how much he was to get for his signature.¹²⁸ Another chief expressed some indignation because the Christian chiefs had not – as he said – met them. I presume he meant those from the other pa where Mr. Stack's influence was supposed to extend more than to his own, and where a Roman Catholic European residentiary and the Catholic Bishop are supposed to have more influence."

A third chief, evidently of an enquiring mind, created some amusement by his quaint method of arriving at a complete analysis of the position. The debate had to all appearances closed – his own speech being no small contribution to the oratory of the day – and he was approached with a view to securing his signature, he firmly deprecated everything in the nature of hurry, and calmly taihoa-ed¹²⁹ the whole proceeding.

"Now first let us talk a little," he said. "Who was the first stranger who visited our shores?"

On being told it was Captain Cook, he continued, "And who was Cook's king, was he not Georgi?"

To this a reply was returned in the affirmative. "And who then," he asked, "is this Queen?"

Major Bunbury took some trouble to explain to him that the King George to whom he referred had been dead for some years, as also his two sons George IV. and William IV., who had succeeded him on the throne, and that the present Queen now reigned because she was the next in line to these dead monarchs.

This modest little dissertation on the Royal genealogy appeared to satisfy him on that point, for he immediately adverted to the native wars, and more particularly to their own hostilities with the Rotorua tribes. Major Bunbury assured him that one of the principal objects of his mission was to persuade all the tribes at present at war to accept the mediation of the Governor, and to induce them to abide by his decision.

"If then your nation is so fond of peace, why have you introduced into this country firearms and gunpowder?" was his pertinent rejoinder.

To this Major Bunbury replied that the effects of this traffic had been much deplored by Her Majesty's Government, who were most anxious to mitigate its consequences by substituting justice and a regular form of government in their country for the anarchy which had prevailed, but this could only be done by the surrender of the sovereign rights to the Queen as asked for in the treaty.

His next enquiry was whether the Queen governed all the white nations?

"Not all," replied Major Bunbury, "but she is the Queen of the most powerful white nation." The Major then went on to explain that Britain had acknowledged the Maoris as an independent nation, but that arrangement had proved abortive in consequence of the native wars and their want of cohesion. To themselves alone therefore were to be attributed the evils from which they suffered. As a corrective for these political troubles the Government had not leagued themselves with other white nations to force an unwelcome authority upon them, but they had come direct to the Maoris themselves, and asked them as a spontaneous gift to vest in Britain the power to avert the evils which were assuredly accumulating round them; evils due to the increasing influx of the Pakeha, and who must otherwise remain subject to no law and amenable to no control.

"On being told," continues Major Bunbury's report, "that I was a chief of a body of soldiers, and that I had served under the monarchs already named, he enquired should his tribe, agreeable to my request, abstain from making war upon the natives at Rotorua, would the Governor send a portion of my force to protect them? I told them Your Excellency desired rather to mediate between them, and only in cases of extreme emergency would you be prevailed upon to act in any other manner. If, however, your arbitration was applied for I had no doubt the custom of their country would be complied with, by your insisting on a compensation being made to the party injured, by the party offending."

Major Bunbury then dwelt upon the sale of native lands, and the right of pre-emption claimed for the Queen, explaining that this restriction was intended equally for their benefit, and to encourage industrious white men to settle amongst them to teach them arts, and how to manufacture those articles which were so much sought after and admired by them. This course, he pointed out, was preferable to leaving the sale of large tracts of country to themselves, when they would almost surely pass into the hands of men who would never come amongst them, but would by their speculations hamper the industrious. The Government being aware of the intentions of these men – many of whom had no doubt counselled them against signing the treaty – would nevertheless unceasingly exert themselves to mitigate the evils following in the train of the speculators, by purchasing the land directly from the natives at a more just valuation.

To this the Nestor of the tribe replied that there was but cold comfort in that for them, as their lands had already gone to the white men, but the land had been fairly sold and fairly bought.

Feeling that he had now said all that he could say of a nature likely to influence the chiefs, and knowing the constitutional abhorrence on the part of the Maori to hurry in such matters, Major Bunbury intimated that he had still another pa to visit, and departed, leaving Mr. Williams to answer any new points which might be evolved in the fertile brain of the men who spoke for the tribe. Their further deliberations, however, took a pecuniary rather than a legal turn. Presents were demanded, and when Mr. Williams indicated that Major Bunbury would doubtless arrange that Mr. Stack should distribute his gifts to those entitled to receive them the sceptical diplomat, who believed in having his bird in the hand, was candid enough to remark that he was not enamoured of prospects so remote.

Before leaving the district Major Bunbury visited the chiefs of the Maungatapu pa, a stronghold of great strength, peopled by a tribe of considerable importance. These men being well disposed towards the Government had, with two exceptions, previously signed the treaty, and their reception of the Governor's representative was most cordial. The hospitality of his table was offered by Nuka, the principal chief, whose engaging manners and admirable bearing so impressed the visitor that he estimated his good-will as worth securing at the cost of "some mark of distinction" if ever it came within the policy of the Government to so honour the more discerning of the chiefs.

"I have deemed it expedient to enter more fully into the detail of this conference," wrote the Major to the Lieutenant-Governor in rebuke of the disloyal speculators, "as one which not only shows fully the general character of the natives, but also the nature of the obstacles I may hereafter expect to meet when principles alien to the Government have been instilled by interested Europeans into their minds, as exemplified also at Coromandel Harbour. Neither will I disguise from Your Excellency my regrets that men professing Christianity should, in a country emerging from barbarity, whose inhabitants are scarcely able to comprehend the simplest doctrines of the Christian religion, endeavour to create distrust of its Ministers – of whatever persuasion – Christianity in any shape, with these people being better than the deplorable condition of many of them at present. It is not the specious professions of a religion which asserts itself unconnected with civil Government which should blind us to the political disunion it creates, but rather its sincerity should be tested by its acts and their effects whether it seeks to open a new field of labour before uncultivated, or to paralyse the efforts of those who have laboured to improve the soil by establishing themselves upon it. The latter I conceive is incompatible with such professions, while this country contains so vast a field untried, but still it is to be hoped reclaimable."

At the conclusion of the Tauranga conference Major Bunbury resumed his journey towards the south, the Missionaries being commissioned by him to continue their negotiations for signatures as opportunity offered. With the Arawa people at Rotorua, they had but poor success, for the reason that the members of that tribe were not altogether free to exercise their own will. Worsted in recent wars by Hongi and other victorious chiefs, the Arawas had in self-defence sought an alliance with the great Te Heuheu, of Taupo, whose protecting mana was at this time thrown over them, and fearful lest they might forfeit his good-will should they adopt a course to which they had every reason to believe their ally was hostile, they refused to subscribe to the treaty until the voice of Te Heuheu had been heard. This leads us to a point where it will be convenient to consider the attitude adopted towards the treaty by this remarkable man.

Te Heuheu Tukino was the second chief of that name, and was a leader endowed with exceptional power, being large of body and of brain. His home was on the shores of Lake Taupo, and by claiming certain geographical features as portions of his own body, he had thereby rendered his domain sacred, and so limited the right to dispose of it to himself. He was not amongst the chiefs present at Waitangi, for under the limited notice given by Captain Hobson, that was not possible. It is even within the bounds of probability that had the messengers of the Lieutenant-Governor reached him he would have dismissed them as they came, for of this he was firmly convinced – that he was "a law unto himself," asserting his own rangatiratanga as sufficiently strong to rule his own people, for which he neither needed nor desired foreign assistance. His first introduction to the treaty came to him through his younger brother Iwikau, who, together with another chief of Taupo, Te Korohiko, were at the then small settlement which has now grown into the city of Auckland, when they were met by Captain Hobson's messengers, and invited to Waitangi. Iwikau and his companion was in charge of a company of Taupo natives who had gone to the shores of Waitemata harbour for the purpose of acquiring European goods. They had packed bundles of flax fibre on the backs of their slaves, who had carried this medium of trade over trackless miles to the coast in order that it might be exchanged for guns and powder. While trafficking with the Pakehas news came of the projected meeting at Waitangi, and some of the Nga-Puhi chiefs – so we are told – thus addressed Iwikau: "Go you to Waitangi, for you are the fish of the stomach of the island.¹³⁰ The mana of Queen Victoria is about to be drawn as a cover over the island. All we chiefs of the native people will pass under her and her mana, that we may not be assailed by the other great nations of the world."

To this Iwikau answered: "I will not be able to attend that meeting if such is its object, namely consenting to the mana of Queen Victoria being placed over us. The right man to consent to or reject such a course is my elder brother, Te Heuheu, at Taupo; and any action on my part might be condemned by him."

This objection was combated by the messengers from Nga-Puhi, who replied: "By all means go, that you may acquire red blankets to take back to your elder brother at Taupo."

Iwikau was still obdurate, feeling that he had no authority to compromise his tribe in the absence of his superior chief, but the vision of the red blankets was more than Te Korohiko could resist, and he joined to those of the Nga-Puhi chiefs his own solicitations: "Oh, let us go that we may acquire the red blankets."

This appeal finally broke down the resistance of Iwikau. They attended the conference at Waitangi, and amongst others of influential rank were invited to sign the treaty. Before signing, Iwikau remarked to Captain Hobson, "I have heard the payment for the chiefs' consent to the Queen's rule consists of blankets." To which the Queen's officer, always anxious that his presents should not be misunderstood, replied, "No, not exactly. The blankets are not payment, but a friendly gift to you folks who have come from afar, and as a means of keeping you warm on your home journey."

The point of distinction was evidently neither so wide nor so fine as to cause Iwikau any alarm, and he signed the document with a portion of his moko, his clan being Ngati-Turumakina. Te Korohiko also signed, and when the gathering had broken up they returned to Taupo to report their proceedings. They met Te Heuheu at Rangiahua, his pa at Te Rapa, where he stood in the midst of the assembled people, a giant amongst men. When the self-constituted ambassadors had concluded their explanations, and produced their blankets the storm which Iwikau had secretly feared burst upon them.

"What amazing conduct is this of yours? Were you two, indeed, sent to perform such acts? O say! O say! is it for you to place the mana of Te Heuheu beneath the feet of a woman. I will not agree to the mana of a strange people being placed over this land. Though every chief in the island consent to it, yet I will not. I will consent to neither your acts nor your goods. As for these blankets, burn them."

Thus did Te Heuheu assert his prerogative, and scorn the interference of the stranger, but he was soon soothed into a more reasonable frame of mind, by Iwikau, who urged his angry brother to await future developments when he would himself see the treaty. "Be not so severe and you can state your thoughts to the Queen's official yourself, for he is travelling the islands of Ao-tea-roa and Wai-pounamu, seeking you, the surviving chieftains, that you may agree to that marking."¹³¹

Te Heuheu consented to wait, and the blankets were for the moment preserved. At length news arrived that Parore, a Nga-Puhi chief, and the Queen's official were on their way to Rotorua to bear the treaty to the Arawa chiefs. Then Te Heuheu thus instructed his people: "When the officer reaches the Arawa at Rotorua I shall attend. Let the tribe accompany me, armed, as trouble may arise over my declining to accept the Queen's rule."

There was much burnishing of rusty arms and snapping of fire-locks at Taupo for the next few days, in anticipation of possible contingencies, for these inland tribes had not yet fully realised the peaceful nature of Britain's mission. Living as they did in the centre of the Island, they were less corrupted by the influence of the degenerate whites, and had neither seen nor felt the need for the interposition of a correcting hand in the same way that the imperative necessity for a change had appealed to the residents of the coastal districts.

Neither were the tribesmen of Te Heuheu being influenced by the same considerations that were driving Nga-Puhi to accept the gospel from the Missionaries and the treaty from the Government. For many years the northerners had enjoyed almost a monopoly in the business of procuring guns, and this superiority in weapons had enabled them to levy a bloody toll upon their southern neighbours. With the increase of traders and the enlarged enterprise of the tribes less favourably situated, this advantage was rapidly receding. Others were securing guns as well as they, and the leaders of Nga-Puhi saw that the day was not far distant when their victims would retaliate, and they would perhaps receive as good as they had given. They therefore welcomed the gospel as a shield, and the intervention of British authority as a bulwark that would stand between them and their enemies whenever they should think fit to seek satisfaction for former injuries on something like equal terms. Not so the Taupo tribes, who were less controlled by such motives. Their position of greater isolation gave them the confidence begotten of a sense of greater security; they felt that they breathed the refreshing atmosphere of a wider independence, and were less subjected to the force of external considerations.

Moreover, the ceding of authority by treaty was an innovation dangerous in its novelty to a people who had known no method of acquiring or foregoing rights so effectual as conquest, and, confident in their own strength to maintain their position by the older method, they were less disposed to dabble in the subtleties of negotiation. With war and its consequences they were perfectly familiar. Diplomacy they did not understand so well; and when to the uncertainty of the procedure was added the supposed indignity of being asked to treat with a Queen, the haughty spirit of Te Heuheu rebelled against such a demeaning suggestion. To submit himself to the superior authority of a chief of his own aristocratic lineage would have been indignity enough, but to come under the dominion of a woman was beyond the limits of toleration.

In due course a messenger reached the pa with the intelligence that the Missionaries at Rotorua had received a copy of the treaty, whereupon Te Heuheu set off with five hundred picked men, prepared to resist to the uttermost should an attempt be made to compel his submission to the Queen. On reaching the Papai-o-Uru pa at Ohinemutu, the discussion began, after the ceremonial of welcoming the strangers had been concluded. The copy of the treaty which the Arawas were being invited to sign, had been entrusted to Messrs. Morgan and Chapman, the Church Missionaries, and to them Te Amohau and Te Haupapa addressed themselves on behalf of their tribe: "The Arawa people have nothing to say in regard to your object. The Arawa will await the word of Te Heuheu Tukino, and will abide by what he says to you."

Te Heuheu arose with stately grace, and repeated an ancient chant, revered amongst the sacred karakia of the Maori, and known as Hiremai. He repeated it to the end, all ears being strained to detect an error, the commitment of which would have boded evil, but he went on faultless to the finish. Leaping to their feet his warriors then indulged in mock passages-at-arms, and when this form of revelry had ended the great chief delivered his judgment upon the treaty: "Hau wahine e hoki i te hau o Tawhaki. I will never consent to the mana of a woman resting upon these islands. I myself will be a chief of these isles; therefore, begone! Heed this, O ye Arawa. Here is your line of action, the line for the Arawa canoe. Do not consent, or we will become slaves for this woman, Queen Victoria."

Te Pukuatua then rose and gave the final answer for his tribe: "Listen, O Parore, you and your Pakeha companions. The Arawa have nothing to add to the words of Te Heuheu. His words denying the mana of the Queen are also our words. As he is not willing to write his name upon your treaty, neither will the chiefs of the Arawa come forward to sign."

Then turning to Te Heuheu he added: "Hear me, O Heu. The Arawas have nothing to say, for you are the person of the Arawa canoe."

The blankets given to Iwikau, at Waitangi, were returned to the Missionaries by Te Heuheu, with the remark: "I am not willing that your blankets should be received as payment for my head and these Islands," and with this embargo put upon their operations, the agents of the Lieutenant-Governor were unable to secure a single Arawa signature to the treaty.

The fiat of Te Heuheu went even far beyond the steaming waters of Rotorua, for at Tauranga upon the coast there lived Tupaea, a chief of the Ngai-te-Rangi, whom because of his influence the Missionaries were particularly anxious to enlist as a subject of the Queen. He too hung upon the words of Te Heuheu, and when he was approached he made answer thus: "What did Te Heuheu say to you at Rotorua?"

The reply was: "Te Heuheu did not consent."

"And what of the Arawa chiefs?" asked Tupaea.

"They followed the word of Te Heuheu," replied the Missionaries.

"Then," said Tupaea, "I will not agree to the chiefs of Ngai-te-Rangi signing the treaty of Waitangi," a decision from which neither he nor his people could ever be induced to depart.¹³²

In the meantime the Herald had left the Auckland waters, and made her way to the south, arriving off Banks's Peninsula during the night of the 24th. Calms and storms alternately intercepted her progress, and it was not until the 28th that Major Bunbury was able to disembark at Akaroa, accompanied by Mr. Edward Williams and Captain Stewart, whose personal acquaintance with the Southern chiefs and their altered dialect¹³³ was destined to be of great service in promoting a common understanding.

At Akaroa they found a native pa in which lived a remnant of the Ngai-Tahu people, broken by the last raid of Te Rauparaha, a whaling station, and a cattle run,¹³⁴ established by a Captain Lethart, who had arrived from Sydney as recently as the previous November. The visitors were more favourably impressed with the condition of Lethart's cattle than with the appearance of the natives, who were so dejected by their misfortunes as to consider themselves almost destitute of rights and without a name. The signature of Iwikau, a brother of Tamiaharanui, the chief who was conveyed captive by Te Rauparaha in the blood-stained Elizabeth, was obtained, as well as that of John Love, another native less highly born, but more richly endowed with intelligence. These two signatures Major Bunbury conceived to be of considerable consequence to his purpose, although from the diminished number of the tribe the men themselves scarcely laid claim to the rank of chief.