The Littlewood Treaty, The True English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi, Found
Chapter: Précis 1 2 3 4 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 5e 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Lord Normanby's Brief Additional Resources
Chapter 20
THE TRUE COLONIAL HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND IN A FEW PARAGRAPHS
If you’re not an “old-wrinkly” like me, then you’re suffering from the distinct disadvantage of never having been taught the true colonial history of your country at school. You can find out what it was easily enough, but you’ll first have to biff your new, politically correct, history textbooks in the rubbish where they belong and head for the libraries and archives to do some deep research, using reliable old books, papers or microfilm duplications thereof. What you’ll find out is that the British never wanted to set up a colony in New Zealand and that the British Parliamentary Papers of the 1830’s will bear this out. Petitions came before the British Parliament from Maori chiefs, settlers and missionaries alike to set up a Protectorate and, later, a fully instituted Colony. Many Maori had visited Britain by 1840 or were living semi-permanently in Australia, and knew very well what a British colony was or what the effect would be should Britain agree to become involved in New Zealand’s tumultuous and complicated affairs.
You’ll also find out that Hobson had to comply with stringent conditions, outlined within a very humane, 4200-word brief from Lord Normanby of the Colonial Office. A colony could only be established in accordance with a high level of justice, integrity and humanity, as spelled out by Normanby (see Lord Normanby’s Brief to Hobson at the end of this book).
Between about 1820 and 1840 Maori had lost around 60,000 of their people,
either killed, maimed or enslaved, during the “Musket Wars”,
initiated by Nga-Puhi chief, Hongi Hika. These wars, and the terrible carnage
committed during them, had nothing to do with the British, but were the result
of utu or revenge and the settling of old scores between the warring Maori
tribes. Hongi’s forces, armed with 300 muskets acquired in Australia
during his return voyage from Britain, had been used to decimate tribes in
Tamaki, Thames, Rotorua, Waikato or in campaigns extending to Cook Strait.
Hongi Hika’s need for revenge or “utu” stemmed from the battle
of Moremonui in 1807. In this battle Nga-Puhi were severely beaten by Ngati
Whatua and Hongi’s sister, brother and half brother were killed. (Refer
to: The Musket Wars, by R.B. Crosby).
An ink drawing replica of James Barry’s 1820 portrait of Hongi Hika, who unleashed an era of terrible carnage by starting the “Musket Wars”. These battles were solely between Maori tribes and were based upon “utu” or the need for revenge for past grievances.
By 1840 most Maori chiefs, like Tamati Waka Néné or his brother Patuone saw the situation as utterly hopeless, unless the British monarchy could take over the country and establish laws to quell the intertribal fighting. Ironically, Tamati Waka Néné had been one of Hongi Hika’s generals and had been on a rampage of death all the way to Cook Strait from his home in the far north of New Zealand. It was inevitable that Nga-Puhi were going to have to pay dearly for the carnage they had unleashed upon the other tribes during the musket wars and southern Maori were rearming to avenge the terrible wrongs committed against them by Hongi’s forces. Néné, it would appear, also knew that the British had beaten the French in the Battle of Trafalgar and were the most powerful naval force on the sea. With the threat of French annexation of New Zealand looming, it was time to vigorously solicit British intervention and the establishment of a colony in New Zealand. Such a move would head off the reprisals that must surely come from southern Maori or the mounting, unhealthy interest the French were showing towards the region.
It was only after 1837 that the British Parliament warmed, slowly and very reluctantly, to the idea of a colony, mostly because Governor Sir George Gipps in Australia asked them to establish one in order to head off French annexation ambitions of New Zealand. Gipps did not want the longtime, traditional enemy of Britain established so close by and able to use New Zealand as a base of operations or staging area to threaten Australia.
Nga-Puhi chief Tamati Waka Néné had seen his last hope for stable Maori government and unity evaporate when Confederation of United Chiefs signatories, Titore and Pomaré II, commenced hostilities between themselves in 1837. In this war chief Hone Heke, the nephew of Hongi Hika, was one of Titore’s generals. During the 1837 intertribal fighting, Captain William Hobson was assigned to sail in from Australia on H.M.S. Rattlesnake to display a strong British presence and initiate some gunboat diplomacy, in order to protect settlers caught between the warring Maori factions. Hobson later wrote a long report recommending the establishment of a British Colony in New Zealand. The British Parliament had traditionally opposed any such move, ever since Captain James Cook first visited New Zealand in 1769. Hobson was later chosen to attempt to secure a treaty, which the British would only enter into if it were based upon the willing transfer of Maori-held, chiefly sovereignty to Queen Victoria.
In Hobson’s opening remarks to the Waitangi assembly on the 5th of February 1840 he reminded the chiefs that, ‘You yourselves have often asked the King of England to extend his protection unto you. Her Majesty now offers you that protection in this treaty’…‘But as the law of England gives no civil powers to Her Majesty out of her domain, her efforts to do you good will be futile unless you consent’ (see The Treaty of Waitangi, by T.L. Buick, pg. 122).
In regards to Chief Tamati Waka Néné’s admonitions at the Waitangi assembly to have sovereignty transferred to Queen Victoria, a 1938 Internal Affairs publication states:
‘Waaka Néné went on to point out the positive advantages of ceding their country to Queen Victoria.* “What did we do before the pakeha came?” he asked. “We fought continually. But now we can plant our grounds, and the pakeha will bring plenty of trade to our shores. Then let us keep him here. Let us be friends together” (see Centennial Portraits, No. 4 - Tamati Waaka Néné, pg. 10.).
Of the later cession of sovereignty by the chiefs to Queen Victoria, Sir Apirana Ngata stated:
‘If you think these things are wrong, then blame your ancestors when they gave away their rights when they were strong’.
Although researchers such as myself are now labelled “Revisionists” (see government website reference to my website) because we will not embrace the undocumented, nouveau and politically correct versions of regional history, thirty years ago or before it would have been our present-day gaggle of social historians who were called “Revisionists”. Pseudo-history is centrally important to social engineering!
Despite the extant records of Tamati Waka Néné’s speech
at Waitangi on the 5th of February 1840 and documented facts related to his
unwavering loyalty to Queen Victoria for all the years of his life thereafter,
the government’s treaty website now states:
‘At Waitangi he [Waka Néné] supported the lieutenant
governor, but he would not have accepted the treaty as a total cession of
sovereignty’ (based upon whose uninformed, prejudiced, political-bent?).
The historical record shows otherwise and the vast majority of Maori both
welcomed and supported the establishment of British sovereignty and rule over
the country.
The clearly stated intention of the British, from the very outset, was that ceded territories were to become British soil and anyone living thereon was to become a British subject of Queen Victoria, subservient to and the recipients of British laws, protections and rights. All subjects were to be equal under one law and one flag, with no provision for partnerships with the Crown or special customary rights of ownership over anyone else. Even as Hobson was sailing to New Zealand to fulfil this commission, an interdepartmental letter written in Britain stated that if Hobson were unsuccessful in securing a treaty, the British would abandon all future plans of ever establishing a colony in New Zealand. Although the British had been invited in, their parliamentarians still had reservations and grave misgivings about the wisdom of the venture.
Lieutenant-Governor Hobson was very successful and, ultimately, gained the adherence of 540 chiefs. One of the first things he instituted was a review of all settler land purchases prior to the establishment of the British colony. In a Proclamation read by him at Kororareka Church on the 30th of January 1840, he stated Britain’s intention to review all land titles. Most often the previously purchased land was given back to the former Maori owners. Thereafter it had to be repurchased by a government appointee, before being subdivided into titled allotments for the settlers. Hobson wished to make a fresh, clean start.
Under instructions from Lord Normanby, an Official Protector of the Maoris was one of the first administrative positions created by Lieutenant-Governor Hobson and a Land Court was set up where Maori owners had to prove that they were the rightful owners of land before it could be sold. According to the exhaustive research by historian, Jean Jackson, Maori were lining up to sell property. To stop disputes, the Maori owners could only sell land to the government representative of Queen Victoria and not directly to any individual settlers (see Article II of the Treaty of Waitangi).
Many areas of New Zealand were purchased more than once by the settlers prior to 1840 or by the government after 1840. In the case of Taranaki, as elsewhere, we have on record about five sale agreements, showing that either The New Zealand Company, other settler’s organisations or, later, the Hobson government, made legitimate, honourable purchases with agreed-to sums being paid, titles of sale properly secured and ownership transferred.
Every paramount chief of Taranaki, whether conquered, dispossessed and vanquished (like Wiremu Kingi) or the conqueror and new owner (Te Wherowhero of Waikato), were fully paid after formal negotiations for the land there and the sale agreement documents, signed by both willing seller-willing buyer, still languish in our archives. Despite this the British are still accused of theft.
Te Wherowhero’s sale of Taranaki to Hobson’s government took place on the 31st of January 1842 (see Te Wherowhero’s Taranaki Sale Agreement complete with drawn maps, held at Land Information New Zealand). This payment was in addition to earlier payment made to Chief Wiremu Kingi at Waikanae by William Wakefield or additional repayments to purchase the same territories, several times over, in the years to follow. Wakefield made two substantial purchases from Wiremu Kingi (Te Whiti) and other chiefs, including Te Rauparaha, on the 25th of October and the 8th of November 1839 (see Copy Of The Deed Of Purchase, New Zealand Company, Deeds 7 & 8).
The Taranaki Province was fairly typical of the tricky and treacherous land purchase situation encountered all over New Zealand and Hobson’s new government had to try to rectify this exasperating problem by setting up a Land Court and forbidding further direct land sales from Maori to the settlers. Some Maori vendors or entrepreneurs were even going to Australia and arranging sales of New Zealand land they didn’t own, which caused major problems for the duped settler purchasers when they later attempted to take possession of their purchases and set up house.
In the book, The History of Taranaki, published in 1878 by B. Wells, a letter from the warrior chief Ihaia Kirikumara, written in conjunction with his friend Tamati Tiraura, is addressed to the settlers in New Plymouth. In this the chiefs mention three of the earlier purchases of Taranaki.
‘Friends, formerly we, the Maoris, lived alone in New Zealand; we did wrong one to another, we ate one another, we exterminated one another. Some had deserted the land, some were enslaved, the remnant that were spared went to seek other lands.
Now this was the arrangement of this Ngatiawa land. Mokau was the boundary
on the north, Ngamotu on the south; beyond was Taranaki and Ngatiruanui. All
was quiet deserted; the land, the sea, the streams, the lakes, the forests,
the rocks, were deserted; the food, the property, the work was deserted; the
dead and sick were deserted; the landmarks were deserted.
Then came the Pakeha hither by sea from other dwellings, they came to this
land and the Maori allowed them - they came by chance to this place - they
came to a place whose inhabitants had left it. There were few men here - the
men were a remnant, a handful returned from slavery.
And the Pakeha asked, where are the men of this place? And they answered, they have been driven away by war, we few have come back from another land. And the Pakeha said, are you willing to sell us this land. And they replied, we are willing to sell it that it may not be barren; presently our enemies will come, and our places will be taken from us again.
So payment was made; it was not said, let the place be taken, although the men were few; the Pakeha did not say, let it be taken, but the land was quietly paid for.
Now the Pakeha thoroughly occupied the purchases made with their money; and the Maoris living in the land of bondage, and those who had fled, heard that the land had been occupied and they said, Ah! Ah! the land has revived, let us return to the land. So they returned. Their return was in a friendly manner. Their thought of the Pakeha was, let us dwell together, let us work together.
The Maoris began to dispute with the Pakeha. When the Governor saw this he removed the Pakeha to one spot to dwell. Afterwards the Pakeha made a second payment for the land, and afterwards a third; and then I said, Ah! Ah! Very great indeed is the goodness of the Pakeha, he has not said that the payment ceases at the first time.
My friends the Pakeha, wholly through you this land and the men of this land have become independent; do not say that I have seen this your goodness to day for the first time. I knew it formally, at the coming here of Governor Grey, I was urgent that the land might be surrendered and paid for by him; that we might live here together, we the Maori and the Pakeha. And my urgency did not end there but through the days of Governor Grey.................’.
This letter was written by the warrior chief Ihaia Kirikumara and his friend Tamati Tiraura at Waitara on 15 July 1860 to the settlers of Taranaki and records that the land in that area was paid for three times over (see The History of Taranaki, published in 1878 by B. Wells).
Several years after the treaty was signed the government experienced some
bloody insurrections, when groups like the Hau haus or King movement rebelled
against or rejected the sovereignty agreements that had been entered into
in their regions. After settlers were murdered, the government troops were
sent in. Fighting alongside the British troops, as allies, were other Maori
tribes. They were not going to tolerate a return to the old ways, marked by
slaughter, slavery, cannibalism, eternal unease and constant intertribal fighting.
In all, over 90% of Maori iwis, whose chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi
and made them British subjects, were always loyal to Queen Victoria and the
new government of New Zealand.
If anyone doubts their resolve or loyalty, they are admonished to read the
speeches of the paramount chiefs at the Kohimarama Conference, convened by
Governor Gore Brown in July 1860. Many Maori joined the “Armed Constabulary”
and represented a large section of the force that attempted to keep the peace.
Were it not for the intervention of the troops of chiefs Tamati Waka Néné, Eruera Patuone and Mohi Tawhai in 1845, after Chief Hone Heke’s forces burnt the town of Kororareka / Russell, it’s doubtful that the treaty could have survived. Néné‘s troops, in alliance with those of the other northern chiefs, held Heke’s rebel forces at bay for a considerable period before any British forces could be mustered to come and help. Of this spontaneous intervention by Tamati Waka Néné to oppose Heke’s northern rebellion, a 1938 Internal Affairs publication states:
‘There is little doubt - as one chronicle puts it - “That Waaka Néné and his allies were not only the preservation of the country as a British colony, but also the preservation of the troops.” His men scouted ahead through the thick bush to clear the route of hostile natives’.
The reasons for Hone Heke’s rebellion are several and reasonably clear.
His mana was slighted when one of the slave women of his tribe, Hinerangi
Kotiro, moved into Kororareka township to live with the local butcher,
William Lord. She made derogatory reference to Hone Heke, calling him a
“pigs head” and the comment got back to Hone Heke. This insult
from a slave resulted in Heke and his followers ransacking Lord’s family
home, store and butcher’s shop. They took everything with them, including
Hinerangi Kotiro. She survived her forced repatriation and returned to live
with William Lord.
Hone Heke had been growing increasingly discontent and hostile for several
years, due to the loss of former lucrative business enterprises, which had
all but ceased after the treaty had been signed and the seat of government
had moved to Auckland in 1841. Up until 1840, as many as thirty visiting foreign
vessels could be found moored at the bay at any one time, and the business
opportunities, in plying sailors with women, or trading to & fro for goods,
had been astounding. For many years this activity had provided Hone’s
section of Nga-Puhi with the muskets and ammunition that made them such a
formidable force in their attacks on other tribes. Because of the cession
of sovereignty to Queen Victoria and custom levies or port duties now flowing
into government coffers, Hone’s wellspring of foreign goods and revenues,
which had always been there since the days of Hongi Hika, had dried up. The
Bay of Islands region was, increasingly, becoming a backwater, as the primary
port of call was now at Auckland (see New Zealand’s First War,
by T.L. Buick, Chapt. II, pp. 33-39).
Following the containment of Heke’s bloody rebellion in the north, Patuone, Néné’s elder brother, established himself permanently in Takapuna, Auckland in order to protect the Seat of Government. He remained there until he died at an age estimated to be about 108, on September 19th 1872. Similarly, Tamati Waka Néné moved from his Hokianga home to Russell to protect that region.
The neatly tended grave of Eruera Mahi Patuone at the Anglican Holy Trinity church graveyard on the slopes of Mt. Victoria, Devonport, Auckland. Patuone was the son of Tapua, who was a tohunga and warrior chief of Ngati-Hao hapu in the Utakura-Waihou region. His memorial plaque calls him ‘a warm friend of Europeans, supporter of the Queen's Laws and peacemaker with his own countrymen’. As stated by other chiefs, like Te Wherowhero of Waikato, who supported the fledgling British colony, any threat to the seat of government would have to “come across his body”.
Chief Tamati Waka Néné, who, in alliance with his brother Chief Eruera Patuone, Chief Mohi Tawhai of Mahurehure, Waima and Chief Taonui Makoare defeated and contained Heke’s rebellion. Without the unwavering loyalty of many chiefs like these throughout the country, Queen Victoria’s British colony in New Zealand could not have survived.
Chief Eruera Patuone
Chief Mohi Tawhai
There were some confiscations of land during the era of “sovereignty wars” (deliberately misrepresented as “land wars” by the grievance industry). In most cases the land was later given back or paid for by the government. The wars had been very expensive and financially crippling for the almost bankrupt, cash-strapped New Zealand government and the actual purchase values of confiscated territories was far less than the cost of the wars. Moreover, confiscations to pay for the wars were limited to unused wastelands adjacent to or far removed from the rebel Maori settlements, not the sites of iwi occupancy, farming and hunter-gatherer sustenance.
Of this unfortunate era, Sir Apirana Ngata stated in his book, The
Treaty of Waitangi- An Explanation:
‘Some have said that these confiscations were wrong and that they
contravene the articles of the Treaty of Waitangi, but the chiefs 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, war arose and blood
was spilled. The law came into operation and the land was taken as payment.
This in itself is Maori custom-revenge-plunder to avenge a wrong. It was their
chiefs who ceded that right to the Queen. The confiscations cannot, therefore,
be objected to in the light of the Treaty’.
It was formerly an accepted fact by our fifties generation that all claims had been settled by about 1947, with exception to some land loaned by the iwis for military camps during W.W.II., which should have returned to their rightful owners at the termination of hostilities. A few of the camps were still in use by the military or government for decades after W.W.II. and a former U.S. military camp at Raglan had been turned into a golf course.
The point is: New Zealanders have got to start researching true historical documents, independently and of themselves, in order to get a real appreciation or grasp on what has actually transpired in our history. To rely on modern-day social engineer historians with political agendas to interpret, on our behalf, what has happened is a formula for disaster. These days, those who control our colonial history have reduced it to the level of manipulative propaganda. As George Orwell put it so eloquently:
‘Those who control the past, control the future; Those who control the future, control the present; Those who control the present, control the past’.
Some of the research material in this book has been made available by direct descendants of Eruera Patuone. The family is also the progeny of James Clendon and several other signatories to the treaty. They are righteously indignant that political opportunists have, lately, tampered with and all but destroyed their dignified treaty with Queen Victoria, put in place by farsighted, honoured family forebears.
By the 1950’s and 1960’s we were a very placid and together little country and our history was not in dispute, as we had, pretty much, all the documents we needed to refer to…with exception to one very important founding document, which our historians openly acknowledged had been lost in early 1840.
Thankfully, Beryl Needham and John Littlewood found that document
anew in 1989 and gave it back
“to all the people of New Zealand”.