Governmental Sovereignty and Private Property Sovereignty.

There are two aspects to ‘sovereignty’. First, there is governmental sovereignty. This is when someone/group of people are given the right to govern a country i.e. set up a justice system, collect taxes, build schools, hospitals, government buildings, roads, bridges etc. Second, there is private land sovereignty. This is the sovereignty a private individual possesses when they own a piece of land. They are sovereign rulers of that land. The boss, if you like. They decide what goes, and what doesn’t go on their land, as long as they obey the rules and regulations of their local council which are established by the governmental sovereignty. When Maori ceded sovereignty in Article one, they ceded government sovereignty i.e. they gave the British the right to establish a government in New Zealand. Maori chiefs were granted their private land sovereignty. That is to say, the chiefs could still be chiefs over their land, and could keep practicing being chiefs (their culture), as long as they were staying within the bounds on British law e.g. no more human sacrifice, murder, war, cannibalism, infanticide, etc. The British, now the government, started to establish rules and regulations for private land sovereignty too e.g. private land owners have to pay rates. In the first Article of the Treaty, Maori ceded governmental sovereignty to the British. This is the first Article: “The chiefs of the confederation of united tribes, and the other chiefs who have not joined the confederation, cede to the Queen of England forever the entire sovereignty of their country.” It’s clear isn’t. ‘Cede’ means to give up, or ‘give somebody control’. Sovereignty means ‘government’ or ‘complete power to govern.’ Here is the first paragraph of the second Article of the Treaty. It says: “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.” The word ‘possession’ is the key word in the sentence. For the British it meant just that - possession, or ownership. The word ‘possession’ was translated into the words ‘tino rangatiratanga’ by missionary Henry Williams on the night of the 4th of February 1840. If you want to know the whole reason why Henry chose this Maori phrase ‘tino rangatiratanga’ then click on the link in the description.