Mark Grace’s rendition of our Treaty, March 2010, contains a number of facts which are not historically correct. The treaty he pictured is known as the “Governments official English Treaty” and was used to established the “Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.” This was, in fact, written by a Mr James Freeman, one who had no authority to write or draft our Treaty and is, therefore, a false document. Being false renders the “Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” false.

It has been proven beyond all doubt we have only one Treaty, Maori. Extensive research by Martin Doutre and failed Government attempts by top Government historians and a private historian hired by government [Donald Loveridge] to discredit Doutre’s research have concreted this fact (www.treatyofwaitangi.net.nz).

Governor Hobson never made nor authorised an English version of the Treaty. His instructions re. further signatures, after the signing of our Tiriti o Waitangi on the 6 February 1840, was, “The treaty which forms the base of all my proceedings was signed at Waitangi on the 6 February 1840, by 52 chiefs, 26 of whom were of the federation, and formed a majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. This instrument I consider to be de facto the treaty, and all signatures that are subsequently obtained are merely testimonials of adherence to the terms of that original document.” Only the Maori Tiriti was signed on this day.

International law states: “If there is more than one treaty and one is in the native language, that in the native language takes precedence over all others.”

Our Maori Treaty bears no exclusive rights to Maori, therefore, Mark Grace’s Treaty history is incorrect in this fact also..

Many Maori claims are made to right the injustice of the “Land Wars,” supposedly initiated when British troops crossed the Maungatawhiri stream in 1863. This crossing was done in hot pursuit of king Tawhiao’s forces who had already expelled all legal settlers in the Waikato in a war initiated by Tawhiao three years earlier, in 1860, in his declared quest to drive the Government and all white settlers into the sea (The Realms of King Tawhiao by Dick Craig).

Believing Church stands for truth and light is the reason for my response.

– George Buchan, Palmerston North