Did Maori did cede Sovereignty?

"Maori did not cede soverignty." This is one of the great lies being told every day for the last 50 years. It’s an incidious form of propaganda that now has Christopher Luxon reluctant to say that they did.

Of course they did. Over 500 maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 in which article 1 states

Playing with words such as governorship or kawanatanga etc is just semantics. They all knew what a chief was. And therefore by default what a great chief was. "There can only be one sun in the sky"

Captain Hobson was sent half way round the world by Queen Victoria via her colonial secretary Lord Normanby, to obtain the sovereignty for Great Britain of New Zealand by treaty. If he was unable to do this he was not to proceed.

Many of the chiefs spoke at the treaty sessions and said that they did not want to cede sovereignty or allow Hobson to be their governor, or to be under the control of a woman. But in the end after two days of discussion amongst themselves and with the missionaries they mostly agreed, and nearly all of the chiefs signed.

For many years the maori chiefs and people were happy to live under British law, which in those days of course was very limlted in scope eg murder, theft, adultery, and land. (no traffc fines in those days!)

They all knew that the alternative was to continue under Tikanga (maori law) which consisted of utu (revege) and xxx and xxxxx

There was a major conference called in 1860 at Kohimarama, twenty years after the signing of the treaty, and many chiefs made speeches over one month which were recorded in the Maori Messager (a local newspaper). Just about all of the chiefs agreed that British sovereignty had been good for the Maori people.

Commment

The latest claims that “Maori dd not cede sovereignty” are by left wing academics with an agenda and by the Maori Party to stir up support and division.