The Truth About The Declaration of Independence 1835 by Stop Co-governance Publishing

The Truth About The Declaration Of Independence, 1835 (Otherwise known as He Whakaputanga) By

Julian Batchelor M.ED (Hons), B.Th, Dip.T’ching

www.stopcogovernance.kiwi

Background to the Declaration:

In the early 1800’s Europeans began arriving in New Zealand in numbers – explorers, whalers and adventurers – many lawless types amongst them. Many Maori-European interactions benefited both but, unsurprisingly, there were some misunderstandings followed by savage reprisals. At Whangaroa in 1810, all but four of the 70 aboard the Boyd were killed and eaten (right). Tragically, reprisals by English whalers led to the death of the innocent chief Te Pahi, not the culprit, Te Puhi.

In 1772, Ngati Pou had killed and eaten French explorer, Marion du Fresne, and 26 of his crew who had apparently broken a tapu. In subsequent encounters, about 250 warriors were killed; most of them when about 1,500 tribesmen attacked a vastly outnumbered French force defending its hospital camp on Moturoa Island.

French appearances in New Zealand waters were of concern to British and Maoris alike. The British in New South Wales (the name for Australia back then) feared their colonial intentions. Missionaries and Maori converts alike feared the spread of Roman Catholicism. Maoris knew that the French had not forgotten the Marion du Fresne (left) affair – they still referred to the French as “the tribe of Marion”.

The Secretary of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand, William Yate, and Ngapuhi chiefs Rawiri Taiwhanga and Rewa in particular were anxious to have a more formal British presence in New Zealand. Yate and Rewa wrote a letter to this effect in both Maori and English versions. It was signed by thirteen Ngapuhi chiefs and sent to King William IV of Britain on 16th November 1831.

This letter was received coolly in Britain. The British were reluctant to increase their involvement in New Zealand, as British parliamentary papers of the time show clearly. For one thing, they needed plenty of effort to put into their Australian colonies (Victoria, 1834, and South Australia, 1836).

The generally warlike behaviour of the Maoris also dissuaded them. However, the Yate/Rewa letter, along with continuing pleas by missionaries and others, induced British Colonial Secretary, Lord Goderich, to appoint James Busby as British Resident in the Bay of Islands 1833. (Right)

With little authority and no means of enforcing it, Busby was in a ludicrous position. However, he did make some efforts. For instance, Maori ships (purchased from the British using money from land sales) trading to New South Wales didn’t have a flag by which they could be recognised. In 1831

some chiefs had flown a Union Jack to warn off French ships.

Busby decided that they needed their own flag and set out to provide it. Missionary Henry Williams sketched three designs. Busby had these made up, raised them on three short poles where they hung limply, assembled fifteen chiefs and invited them to choose one. Mystified, the chiefs voted for all three. The impasse was broken by a Maori servant of Williams and one was chosen.

The other two being hauled down, Busby “haughtily declared [it] the National Flag of New Zealand” and rewarded all those present with a large meal. Flown occasionally and forgotten, it was rescued from oblivion by the Shaw, Savill and Albion shipping company and adopted as its house flag, serving as such as late as 1970.

Born in comic opera circumstances, it is this flag which was flown by the Tuhoe tribe in 2010 during their verbal exchanges with Prime Minister Key.

What Reputable Historians and British And New Zealand Government Officials Said About The Declaration In 1835 a genuine effort was made by Busby and the northern chiefs to form some sort of government for New Zealand. “This time”, wrote Michael King, “in exchange for a second cauldron of porridge, Busby persuaded the same chiefs and some additional ones [initially 39, but eventually ; in total] to sign ‘A Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand’ by a ‘Confederation of United Tribes’” – a document which he himself had concocted. The following a just some of the comments made my historians and officials about this declaration.

• “A bloodless puerility”, wrote Pember Reeves in 1898

• “A second and equally contrived ceremony” wrote Michael King in 2003

• “Little more than a pebble” wrote Paul Moon in 2006

• “A paper pellet” said Governor Gipps in Sydney at the time,

• “Silly and unauthorised”, said a Colonial Office official.

A congress or parliament was to meet in Waitangi each autumn but attendances soon fell to nothing and it was abandoned altogether in 1838.

This was precipitated in part by the outbreak of full-scale civil war amongst Ngapuhi and two adjacent tribes. Pomare and Titore, both Ngapuhi signatories of the “Declaration of Independence” less than eighteen months previously, were openly at war.

Titore attacked Pomare’s pa with 800 warriors, though a little later Titore himself was killed. With efforts by the missionaries and others, the conflict simmered down after several months.

“The ‘Declaration’ was not even acting as a regional goodwill agreement, let alone a national document of constitutional significance.”

Historian Bruce Moon writes:

“Busby did not stop there. As King continues “A second and equally contrived ceremony took place again at Waitangi in October 1835.” “[I]n exchange for a second cauldron of porridge” he persuaded assembled chiefs to sign “A Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand” by a “Confederation of United Tribes”. There was very little Maori input to this document. A few people said they approved but most comments were scathing when it was reported. “A paper pellet” said Governor Bourke in Sydney. Captain Fitzroy, later Governor, arriving in the Bay of

Islands in December 1835 said of Busby “He chose to tell everyone ...that he could do nothing.” “The Confederation of chiefs had been helpless in the face of social disorder [and was] acknowledged by the chiefs themselves to be impracticable”.

An early observer of New Zealand with a keen eye, albeit no better man than his father, Edward Jerningham Wakefield wrote: “So little were these or any other chiefs of New Zealand capable of performing such an act as the document describes, that their own language wanted the most important words expressive of its purpose, such as “independence’, “sovereignty”, “government”, “confederation”, “legislative” and even a name for the country over which their new authority purported to extend.

“The new government was found so unreal, that no meeting of the confederated chiefs ever took place, nor was either the confederation, or the declaration of independence, or the national flag, even known to any of the native tribes out of the small peninsula which forms about a twelfth part of the country.” 1

Indirectly the ‘confederation’ did have significance as it led to discussion between Maori chiefs on one hand and Busby and the missionaries on the other, of constitutional and other European political concepts, such as sovereignty, which were new to Maori thought. Even before Busby arrived it had been found necessary to invent Maori terms for some ideas unfamiliar to them.

Then in 1837, Captain William Hobson (right), Royal Navy, was sent to New Zealand in HMS Rattlesnake to protect British settlers caught between warring Maori factions. In his report on this visit he recommended that a British colony be established in the country and that a Treaty be made between the British and Maori.

The rest is history.

It would be fair to summarise as follows.

1. 39 Chiefs signed the delcaration of independence. How would they decide on behalf of 600 chiefs who know nothing about it? Answer? They couldn’t.

2. The 39 chiefs only met once. They were warring again within 18 months of the first signing.

3. The Declaration was unauthorised by the British government.

The following is what reputable scholars have said about the Declaration.

Dr Bain Attwood is professor of History at Monash University (left) and has held fellowships at the University of Cambridge and Harvard.

In his book “Empire and the making of Native Title. Sovereignty. Property, and Indigenous People” states the following.

“In 1831 a small number of Northern Maori chiefs had petitioned King William the IV asking him for protection. They said they were ‘the chiefs of the natives of New Zealand’. The King replied in the affirmative. Busby was then appointed in 1833 as British resident. The chiefs saw Busby’s arrival as a response to the 1831 letter i.e. “Great. The British have sent someone to be our protector”. Some of the chiefs wondered why he had not brought troops!

1 Bruce Moon. New Zealand The Fair Colony. Page 19

Busby then set about trying to form a government of chiefs. A flag was made which enabled these chiefs to claim the protection of the British when they were going in and out of foreign ports. The imperial government approved the flag. On this basis, Busby asserted the crown was acknowledging New Zealand as a sovereign country. But, as we have discovered, he was unauthorised to do this.

Things heated up in 1835. Baron Charles de Theirry came to New Zealand intent on setting up an independent state in the Hokianga. He claimed he had purchased the land from the natives and would return with the means to uphold his claim i.e. come back with soldiers.

To ward de Theirry off, Busby hurriedly gathered chiefs together at Waitangi to consider ‘A declaration of Independence’. 34 signed. They declared that NZ was an independent state. No other state could exist unless it was approved by them i.e. Maori. Of course, they were talking to de Theirry. Crucially, they forwarded their declaration to the King asking him to be the parent of their ‘infant state’. What they meant was to protect it from people like de Theirry.

What Busy did (and this is the important bit) was create a fiction that NZ was in independent state under the protection of the British government.

He had to create an impression. On the one hand King William said he would protect New Zealand. On the other, the chiefs had created an independent state. Bring these two elements together, and what do you get? Answer? You get a message to de Theirry saying ‘You can’t set up in Hokianga. New Zealand is an independent state, protected by the British government.’

“Busby made it clear that he was aware that the Declaration could be misunderstood as an act by which the British Crown recognised Maori as fully sovereign (which is the very way that it has been misunderstood in recent times). Consequently, he made it clear to his superiors that he knew that the British government could claim New Zealand as its possession on the grounds of discovery and settlement and that he assumed the Declaration would not prevent the government doing just that sometime in the future.

Moreover, he informed the Colonial Office that he regarded the Declaration as a means by which the government could make the country a dependency of the British Crown in all but name. Finally, three months after he drew up the Declaration, Busby more or less abandoned his project of trying to turn the rangatira in northern New Zealand into a form of political authority that would produce a national sovereignty and enable them to continue to act as allies of the British government. [Reporting back to the British government] He began instead to claim that the native chiefs would be glad to yield government of their country to the British Crown and thereby become its subjects, though in making this claim he made it clear to his superiors that they would need to give an undertaking to the chiefs to protect their people’s rights, including their rights in land.”2

In other words, it was the chiefs who gave up on the Declaration of Independence. They realised it was not working and would never work. Thus the idea of a Treaty was birthed. What idea? That the British would come here, set up government, organise everything, and Maori would be British subjects and thus have the full protection of the British Empire.

Maori loved this idea. Protection from foreign powers was what Maori wanted from the British, and protection is what the British delivered.

In this way, New Zealand was set up for a Treaty in 1840.

The following is from New Zealand Historian Dr Matthew Wright (left). Illustrated History of New Zealand. David Bateman Press. 2013. p51

“Chance provided Busby with his next opportunity (i.e. to stop the French from swooping in on New Zealand). New Zealand was part of the British sphere, but without a formal declaration of the British government the country was legally open to claim, and there was a scare in 1831 when the French warship La Favourite was reported to be on her way to annex New Zealand for France. That crisis passed, but then in 1835 the self-styled Baron Charles Phillipe Hippolyte de Thierry loomed into view. He had purchased land near the Hokianga, apparently intending to establish an independent French enclave, perhaps with help from Tahiti. Busby responded with a ‘Declaration of Independence, signed by thirtyodd chiefs in October, and which he continued to peddle until the late 1830s. The declaration was accepted by the Colonial Office to the extent that its signatories were sought for the Treaty of Waitangi, which superseded it.3

This is significant, and we need to carefully note what Dr Matthew Wright has written. During 1840, the British went out of their way to get the signatures of those chiefs who’d signed the Declaration of Independence 1835 (otherwise known as He Whakaputanga). Why? To avoid the loophole tribalists and Maori activists are trying to wriggle through today. What loop hole? They claim that through the Declaration of Independence 1835, New Zealand was recognised by the British government as a sovereign nation ruled by Maori alone. They fail to mention that the same chiefs who signed the Declaration went on to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. In effect, the Treaty nullified the Declaration. Or, to use Matthew Wright’s words, superceded it.

Conclusion? He Whakaputanga is nothing more than a paper tiger, an imaginary dream of radical tribalists, grasping at straws in their attempts to wriggle out of the fact that they ceded sovereignty to the British in the Treaty of Waitangi, February 6th 1840.

T. Lindsay Buick (left) writes “Dr. Marshall, surgeon of HMS Alligator, mentions that during his visit to the district he had become interested in a chief named Hau, who, prior to the voting [about what flag to choose], asked the Doctor for his opinion, on the designs.

The Doctor favoured the one ultimately chosen, and Hau having discovered how my taste lay, paid me the compliment of adopting it, and canvassed others for their votes also. This influence in all probability decided the election. After cession of sovereignty to the Queen in I840 this flag was of course superseded by the Union Jack as a National ensign. It was then adopted by the Shaw Savill & Albion Shipping Company and is now flown by them as their house flag.” (T. Lindsay Buick. The Treaty of Waitangi Or How New Zealand Became A British Colony. S and W McKay Printers, Wellington. 1914. Page 21). 3 Matthew Wright. Illustrated History

Key points to remember?

1. The Declaration of Independence (1835) was superceded by the Treaty of Waitangi 1840. How so? All those who signed the Declaration also signed the Treaty. The British sought them out for signing. That is to say, the Treaty Of Waitangi 1840 cancelled out The Declaration of Independence 1835. Maori activists have not woken up to this fact of history.

2. The Declaration was never officially authorised by the British Government.

3. The 39 chiefs who signed it were at war with each other 18 months after the first signing.

4. The chiefs only met once.

5. The real reason for the Declaration? The British wanted to ward off the French and to do that they needed to show the French paper work proving that New Zealand was an independant Maori nation under the protectorate of Britain. Really, the British were using Maori to grab the country for themselves.

6. Dr Bain Attwood calls the Declaration “A fiction”.

7. However, despite points 1-6 above, the Declaration was important because it showed that Maori just couldn’t set up a government on their own, and they needed the British to do it for them. Hence, the Treaty 1840.

So don’t get sucked in by people waiving the Declaration of Independence around, crying “See, Maori never ceded sovereignty to the Queen!”

It’s nonsense.

They did - in the Treaty of Waitangi.

Springing from this greatly misunderstood “the Declaration of Independence” many Maori groups are up to all kinds of things.

The following is from Dr John Robinson’s book called “Regaining a Nation.” This book can be purchased from Tross Publishing. Just Google this. You’ll find it.

An existing separate Maori government

New Zealand has been steadily moving towards the breakup of unified government. A number of Maori organisations control key resources and have taken action on the international stage, and more is intended. A number of such recent steps have been described above. One significant example is the 2022 legislation on Three Waters, where the choice of regional entities (controlling and owning the resources) is made through a series of stages, starting with ‘Regional Representation Groups’ that are half chosen by local authorities and half by ‘mana whenua’. As previously noted, there is no clarity concerning who decides policy and organises the group representing mana whenua.

Yet these undefined tribal groupings are given the authority and responsibilities of government; they are required by the legislation to set policy and to make appointments. They are not only allowed to set up a de facto alternate government; they are, in fact, instructed to do so. That division is a feature of current government policy of cogovernance, which is moving firmly towards the complete separation of government set down in He Puapua for 2040.

Others have not waited but have formed their version of the proposed alternative government already. When I discovered an osteopath who was operating illegally, practicing without being properly registered, I found that her website made the claim that she “is a WHC registered osteopath”. She required patients to sign an indemnity clause in a five-page contract before treating them, including: “Our practitioners shall be immune

from prosecution or censure by any authority, person, or entity, insofar as they are acting within the above stated principles, laws, and precepts in the context of their acknowledged skill set that has been vetted by the Wakaminenga Health Council (WHC) as part of their registration. The Wakaminenga Health Council shall be the sole authority to which our health practitioners are accountable.”

This Wakaminenga Health Council is claimed to be authorised by the “Maori government of Aotearoa nu tirani”. Here is the claim of authority held by an alternative, Maori government. I took a complaint to Osteopaths New Zealand Inc, who referred me on to the Osteopathic Council of New Zealand, who referred me on to the Ministry of Health, who are the appropriate authority for taking action.

The response showed that the authorities were well aware of the infringements. “The Ministry is aware of ‘Wakaminenga Kaunihera Hauora Health Council’, and the ‘Maori Government of Aotearoa Nu Tirani’ and is actively considering options to respond to their claims to be able to issue Annual Practicing Certificates to health practitioners. In regards to the osteopath, the Ministry is making inquiries into their compliance with section 7 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act (2003).”

That was May 7, 2022. I persisted and sent a further email asking whether they were doing anything, asking three explicit questions. On 16 June there were no answers, only a question whether I want these questions to be treated as a request under the Official Information Act – with a comment about good reasons for withholding official information, telling me that this would be a waste of time, but I made that request. The reply, dated 14 July, 2022, told nothing: “The matters that you raise are currently subject to an ongoing legal proceeding that is before the court. As such, your request is refused in full.”

I had passed this information to the ACT Party, who raised this issue with the Ministry, who replied in similar words: “The Ministry is aware of ‘Wakaminenga Kaunihera Hauora Health Council’, and the ‘Maori Government of Aotearoa Nu Tirani’. I can advise that actions are underway by the Ministry but the Ministry cannot disclose any further detail at this time.”

The several authorities were afraid to face up to Maori treason (this is exactly what this, the setting up of a separate government) and were kicking for touch. Otherwise, action would have been prompt and decisive. Throughout, I have been told that I have the facts right, that there is an infraction, but that no-one is going to do anything about it; they are able to break the law with impunity. This is a common experience; New Zealanders are afraid of Maori, and Maori can flout the law. I have often been shown to be naïve in my expectations that we should all obey the law, and that any infractions will be dealt with promptly. While those in authority support Maori exceptionalism, many New Zealanders are unhappy, but all too often reasonable argument is met with a media focus on the Maori position, and claims of racism.

The website of “Te Wakaminenga Maori government of Aotearoa nu tirani: the de jure Government of the Chiefs of the Confederation of the Maori Tribes” (with a Te Awamutu box number address) provides further information on this alternative government.

Here is the claim to be “the lawful government of Aotearoa nu tirani, recognised under international law since October 28, 1835”, in a proclamation dated 14 February 14, 2022, which was sent to the World Health Organisation, signed by ‘Prime Minister’ Arikinui Ripekatangi (Georgina Job).267 There is no stated connection with other Maori organisations.

They announce that this proclamation “shall also serve as a pre-preemptive notice that we reject all attempts of the corporation known as Her Majesty Queen [sic] in right of New Zealand and Crown Corporation, or any other entity or corporation to usurp control of our whenua rangatira any present or future treaties with the World Health Organisation, United Nations and any other foreign entities or otherwise.” That refutation of the New Zealand government, with a decision to “freely choose to abandon the aforementioned NZ Corporation

and give our full support to the sovereign nation of Aotearoa Nu Tirani and its representatives and elected government”, is repeated in a further website. If this is not treason, then what is?

The ‘Confederation of the Maori Tribes’ (noted previously) and the date of ‘October 28, 1835’ are references to a letter drafted by the Consular Agent and British Resident, James Busby, and signed by thirty-four northern Maori chiefs at his residence in Waitangi; this is often referred to as ‘He Whakaputanga’. Despite the heading (“Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand”) this letter was not a true declaration but rather a statement of intent.

The third article of the letter makes this clear: “The hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes agree to meet in Congress at Waitangi in the autumn of each year, for the purpose of framing laws for the dispensation of justice, the preservation of peace and good order, and the regulation of trade; and they cordially invite the Southern tribes to lay aside their private animosities and to consult the safety and welfare of our common country, by joining the Confederation of the United Tribes.” That effort failed. The intended national authority never came into being, and the claim for authority based on it is fraudulent.

This fake Wakaminenga government offers a “Protected individual Vaccine exception” card, exempting a person “from receiving any vaccine or medical tests which breach hapu tikanga customary laws”. They also provide a trespass order, proclaiming: “WARNING TRESPASS NOTICE! TO ALL NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT OR LOCAL COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES, POLICE, MILITARY OR OFFICERS OF Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand or Corporate representatives. YOU MAY NOT ENTER WITHOUT CONSENT”.

The claim is that: “The flag herein this notice, and that is situated on this Private Land, affirms this property and its occupants are under the jurisdictional authority and protection of Nga Rangatira o Nga Hapu o Te Wakaminenga o Nu Tirani, Aotearoa (Congress of Māori Chiefs) who act under the authority of He Whakaputanga 1835 also known as the Declaration of Independence 1835. Failure to understand or recognise what this means is not an excuse to breach this authority. …

The occupants here on this land are protected under He Whakaputanga 1835 and Common Law jurisdiction and have not entered into or agreed to a contract of engagement with the New Zealand Government also known as ‘Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand’ or any other Council or Corporate entity. TRESPASS DAMAGES shall apply if YOU step onto this Private Property. Minimum Penalty – NZD $10,000.00 (Ten Thousand New Zealand Dollars).”

No such meetings took place. Busby failed to convene any further such gatherings and “warfare had again broken out in the north between rival alliances of hapu, dashing hopes for an annual congress of chiefs.” The proposal was not presented to other tribes, and that effort failed. The intended national authority never came into being, and the claim for authority based on it is fraudulent.

They also provide a trespass order, proclaiming: “WARNING TRESPASS NOTICE! TO ALL NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT OR LOCAL COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES, POLICE, MILITARY OR OFFICERS OF Her Majesty the Queen in Right of New Zealand or Corporate representatives. YOU MAY NOT ENTER WITHOUT CONSENT”.

In 2018, this ‘government’ sent a petition to the ‘Tax Working Group Secretariat’, with copies to a wide range of others, including the Chief Justice, Her Majesty the Queen, His Holiness Pope Francis, the British Lord Chief Justice, Governor-General Patsy Reddy, the United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Prime Minister and a number of Ministers, their ‘Maori Government Treasury’ and the ‘Maniapoto Tribal Government’.

The petition asked for “our percentage of the Gross Domestic Product allocated specifically for the upholding our own mana and tino rangatiratanga maintaining our rights to self-determination and self-government under our constitutional documents” – “we would like a fairer share of the tax revenue and gross domestic product, transparency, accountability, and treaty auditing of the revenues, royalties, and capital flows off our natural resources, lands, people, local government, customs exports, immigration, etc. due to the extreme poverty, deprivation, homelessness, neglect, inequity, and structural discrimination against tangata whenua/maori / native/indigenous people in housing, labour markets, economy, health, education bought [sic] about by neo liberal policies and 180 years of systematic colonial socio-economic and hegemonic oppression.” This extraordinary claim was a request for money gathered by the true government (which they consider illegitimate) to be handed to their alternative government.

The Government is still taking no evident action about their various actions, having told me only that it is ‘considering options’ (noted above).

A series of ‘seminars’ by speaker Antionette James have been organised across New Zealand (including at Taupo, Waihi, Tauranga, Turangi, Christchurch, Gore and Wanaka, plus several public ZOOM meetings). A number of these talks are available on their website; the following notes relate to that at Taupo.

An early quote, with the words of Thomas Jefferson, suggests a priority of individual ‘rights’ over collective, community government: “Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.”

Those rights are then described as “the laws of nature and of nature’s god”. That concept, which has also wrongly been called ‘common law’, can be defined as “the rules of moral conduct implanted by nature in the human mind, forming the proper basis for and being superior to all written laws; the will of God revealed to man through his conscience.”

Much of the talk followed the spiritual paths of many thinkers in past centuries, before paying particular attention to the activities of the Pope, including during the Second World War. The religious focus continues with a slide of the Jesuit Oath. There is no reference to the New Zealand experience, to either British intentions or to the realities of tikanga. Some three-quarters of the way through, we learn of their health council, which has so concerned me. The actions of authorities, which I could not be told of by the Ministry (see above), are described, as follows: Police

phoned their ‘Prime Minister’ Georgina Job for a dialogue and after some meetings the problem was ‘sorted’. The conclusion reached by the group was that: “we were recognised because we are lawful”. Further: “we are an authority that is recognised”; the speaker also claimed that they were internationally recognised. Their belief was that their activities were to “make community decisions for our community”, with separate jurisdictions, “Maori and non-Maori with different councils being built at the moment”. These could then communicate through the media. The New Zealand Government has done nothing to counter unlawful activities and that claim for independent sovereignty, only holding talks behind closed doors (with a refusal of information to the ordinary citizen) and leaving lawbreakers untouched, giving them the impression that they have been recognised as legitimate. Meanwhile, this break-away group is acting to destroy the unity of a common community.

Antionette James made their intentions clear in an interview. “We are trying to build up councils so that we can take over … some councils, we will just man those, others we will just go in and we will deconstruct in significant areas … Under customary law, we are guardians of the land, and that buys into Judeo-Christian beliefs that we are stewards; we are in control”

This suggests even more than the co-governance proposed by He Puapua.

It is all too easy to become confused about just what is going on, as with two further groups I came across, which at first appeared to be all part of that Maori alternative government, until a check with their various websites. One of these, the ‘Maori Ranger Security Division’, is a separate organisation (“we are not part of Nu Tirani Maori Government, Te Wakaminenga Maori Government or National Wakaminenga), although their website sets down a similar range of ‘information’, including an interview in which “Dr. Manuka Henare explains the 1835 He Whakaputanga and how Maori Sovereignty was NEVER ceded”. As the title suggests, this includes a policing unit.

The suggestion is put forward that many diverse groups can proceed independently to self-governance. “We do not need permission to activate or action our inherent customary rights provided we are acting in accordance to tikanga. … The international indigenous and native laws and imperial laws have already been set in place for our protection. In 2004 the United Nations Safety and Security Services recognised Wakaminenga O Nga Hapu as the autonomous native authority.”

They claim that “The power is with hapu authority not iwi” and “encourage all hapu members nationwide to activate your Wakaminenga O Nga Hapu so you can enjoy the benefits of autonomy. Autonomy is when you are separate from your government. It is more a mental state of mind first .... then you will learn how to action your autonomy”.

Here is tribalism gone mad: not a separate Maori government, not many separate iwi entities, but a multiplicity of different hapu authorities.

They advertise “Te-moana-nui-a-kiwa Diplomatic Immunity Sea Pass Identity Cards” ($50 Adults and $25 Kids 18 and under), “in order to create a safe space for people to start activating their inherent customary rights and common law rights. This appears to be claimed to be an international document, to provide ‘diplomatic immunity’ and to be “issued in accordance with the S2 Passports Act 1992”.

Another anti-government group, reported by the ‘Sovereign Citizen Movement’ is the formation of ‘Common law sheriffs’, which believe that: “The common law is the law of God written by Him on the conscience of every man. It is the sacred duty of every freeborn man to defend that law and his own liberty before and over every obligation, yea even obligation to the state or to the King” (Sir Edward Coke, 1628).

This definition is similar to that given previously, and there are reports of a number of people offering these ‘common law’ courses. These concepts destroy any understanding of and belief in the legitimacy of real common law, as taught in universities and generally understood. The resulting confusion creates conditions for the formation of destructive alternative power structures.

This lack of clarity has opened the way for more disputes. For example, in mid-2022, an argument between Ngai Tahu and the New Zealand Maori Council about how Maori representatives are to be selected is before the Waitangi Tribunal.

This concerns Resource Management Act changes where planning laws will be taken from local councils and given to 14 co-governed entities. Maori society has never been united, and is fundamentally divided today. Who is to hold this new power – hapu, iwi, federation or council?

An alternative government, destroying the unity of the nation, has been set up, and is unchallenged. Indeed, a fragmentation, a multiplicity of further alternative governments, is suggested. Unfortunately, these actions sit comfortably with the government policy of racial separation and co-governance. Such treasonable acts undermine the integrity, legitimacy and strength of the democratically elected parliament. The resultant confusion and disunity will reduce the real, and only, government’s ability to get things done for the good of all New Zealanders.