Nu Tireni · Evidence Series · Part 05 · February 1840
What did Te Raki rangatira agree to in te Tiriti?
Britain’s negotiating intention and the agreement understood by the rangatira are not the same evidential proposition.
Primary treaty text + Waitangi Tribunal finding
The Māori text signed by most rangatira uses kawanatanga in Article 1 and guarantees te tino rangatiratanga in Article 2. Archives New Zealand publishes the Māori and English texts side by side and explains the material differences between them.
The Waitangi Tribunal’s Stage 1 inquiry examined the meaning and effect of te Tiriti for the rangatira who signed in the Bay of Islands and Hokianga in February 1840.
The Tribunal found that those rangatira did not cede their sovereignty. More precisely, it said they did not cede authority to make and enforce law over their people or territories.
The Tribunal also found that they agreed to the Governor having authority to control British subjects, and that the rangatira and Governor were to have different roles and different spheres of influence. Where Māori and Pākehā populations intermingled, the practical boundary between those spheres remained to be negotiated.
The Tribunal separately found that Britain entered the negotiations intending to acquire the power to make and enforce law over both Māori and Pākehā, but did not adequately explain that intention to the rangatira.
What the evidence supports
For the Te Raki rangatira within the Stage 1 inquiry, the Tribunal found no cession of their authority to make and enforce law over their people or territories.
The Tribunal found an agreed relationship involving different roles and different spheres of influence.
What it does not establish by itself
The Stage 1 finding does not itself determine the present-day legal status of a separate United Tribes jurisdiction. The Tribunal expressly said it was not deciding how and when the Crown acquired the sovereignty it exercises today.
Primary and official sources
Archives New Zealand — what te Tiriti says in Māori and English ↗