Bruce Moon (Letters, December 28), in my view, is seriously ignorant about the Treaty of Waitangi. Claudia Orange's book The Treaty of Waitangi records that Governor Hobson sent official Maori and English copies of the Treaty to Britain and these still exist in British archives. The Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 legally requires the government to honour both these Treaties together. Because of this, my view is that Bruce's claim the English Treaty has no constitutional significance is not credible. Bruce claims that the Maori Treaty applies to "all the people of New Zealand", and gives no special preference to Maori, but he ignores the English Treaty which applies only to "the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand and the respective families and individuals thereof". By failing to consider both Treaties together Bruce is, I believe, giving us a selective and discredited interpretation.
Peter Dey
Welcome Bay