The Treaty of Waitangi

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the Treaty of Waitangi - an agreement between the British Crown - when New Zealand was an English colony - and chiefs, from the Maori culture. The paper provides a history of this document as well as the ensuing results. The paper concludes that the history of the British colonization of New Zealand - based on the promises made in the Treaty of Waitangi - has not been an honorable one. This is not a new revelation, but one that has been well documented for many years. Still, the problems that face the Maori - and whether or not solutions for those problems will be linked to a new perspective on and acceptance of the Treaty of Waitangi - are significant and won't be solved anytime soon.

Outline:
Introduction
History of the Treaty of Waitangi: Timeline
The Meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi
Controversy Over Social Policy
Social Services that are Available to Maori Peoples

From the Paper:

"The first British "missionaries" arrived in New Zealand in 1814 and the Rev. Samuel Marsden of the Church Missionary Society gave a sermon in English at Rangihoua on Christmas Day, 1914. There was a translation into the Maori language by chief Ruatara. Europeans began arriving in large numbers during the early 1800s and "growing lawlessness," according to the www.nzhistory.net site led local indigenous peoples to petition British King William IV for protection. Also, Maori people began to fear that the French would "annex" New Zealand, and those concerns were relayed to the king in a 1831 letter that Missionary William Yate helped the chiefs to draft. The King of England did acknowledge the letter and made a promise that the Crown would protect the native citizens of New Zealand.
In 1835 fifty-two Maori chiefs signed what they believed was a "Declaration of Independence"; it was written by British resident James Busby, but he had no authorization to do what he did. What the document attempted to do was to make official that "all sovereign power and authority" was in the hands of the "hereditary chiefs and tribes." And in 1837 the British Crown decided to establish a colony in New Zealand; the government believed it needed to "intervene" to "ensure that colonization was regulated and that land transactions that defrauded Maori were stopped," the www.nzhistory.net site explained. This policy followed the original British strategy of hoping that English missionaries would moderate or keep peace between the British settlers and the Maori."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Barrett, Mark, & Connolly-Stone, Kim. (1998). The Treaty of Waitangi and Social Policy. Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, Issue 11, 137-152.
• Bhopal, Raj. (2005). Racism, socioeconomic deprivation, and health in New Zealand. Lancet, 367(9527), 1958-59.
• Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand. (2007). What is Health Promotion? Retrieved April 6, 2008, from http://hpforum.org.nz/page.php?7.
• Himona, Ross. (2006). Maori Development. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://maaori.com/develop/commaori.html.
• Lunt, Neil, Spoonley, Paul, & Mataira, Peter. (2002). Past and Present: Reflections on Citizenship within New Zealand, Social Policy & Administration, 36(4), 346-362.

More papers on The Treaty of Waitangi:

• Essay # 57837 : "The Treaty of Waitangi"
• Research Paper # 147260 : "The Institution of Democracy"
• Term Paper # 150398 : "Development of the New Zealand Legal System"

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