The Treaty of Waitangi, Article 2, sentence 1, Part 4

This is the fourth video on sentence one of Article two of the Treaty of Waitangi which reads : “The Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and the tribes and to all the people of New Zealand, the possession of their lands, dwellings and all their property.” We have discovered so far that: • In 1840, the British considered that New Zealand was a sovereign Maori nation. • This is why they came to ask Maori to cede sovereignty. • ‘The people of New Zealand’ in this Article is a reference to Maori. • Each chief had their land surveyed and titles were issued. In the previous video, we talked about their surveyed land being their 1cm²s. • The British promised to protect Maori in the ownership of their land, dwellings, and property. • The foreshore, seabed, and beaches belonged to all the citizens of the country. • This was because according to British law, the The Law of Public commons: “the air, running water, the sea, and with it the shores of the sea” belonged to all the citizens of a country. And since Maori had become British citizens, and this was a British law, and British law was imported into New Zealand, it applied to Maori. • The word ‘possession’ in this article meant simply that – possession. ‘Ownership’ is an accurate alternative to ‘possession.’ It’s worth noting at this point that by signing the Treaty the Declaration of Independence 1835 was superceded by the Treaty. All the those who signed this declaration were sought out by the British, and they all signed the Treaty in 1840. In eWect, this meant the Treaty cancelled out the 1835 Declaration. Historian Dr Matthew Wright says “The declaration was accepted by the Colonial O5ice to the extent that its signatories were sought [and collected] for the Treaty of Waitangi, which superseded it.” (Matthew Wright. Illustrated History of New Zealand. David Bateman Press. 2013. p51) Ok, back to Article 2, sentence one: “The Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and the tribes and to all the people of New Zealand, the possession of their lands, dwellings and all their property.” There is another word of great interest here, and it’s the word ‘property.’ Henry Williams translated it this word as ‘taonga’ in Maori. Historian Bruce Moon says the word ‘taonga’ has an interesting history. In 1820 while assisting Kendall and Lee of Cambridge in compiling the first Maori dictionary, Hongi Hika had defined it as “property procured by the spear – tao”. In an appeal for protection by 13 Ngapuhi chiefs to King William in 1831, they said “We are a people without possessions. We have nothing but timber, flax, pork and potatoes.” And their word for “possessions” was “taonga”. In other words, it just means