NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Kahu

<i>Paul Moon:</i> Hope for watershed in new Treaty era

NZ Herald
12 Jan, 2010 03:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

John Key and Pita Sharples cosy up at a hui held last year. Photo / Kenny Rodger

John Key and Pita Sharples cosy up at a hui held last year. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Opinion

In the lead-up to Waitangi Day, Paul Moon looks at the state of the Treaty in the 21st century.

Four sentences. That's it. The Treaty of Waitangi comprises a preamble and three articles, each of which is just one sentence long.

Admittedly, these sentences are fulsome and ponderous - probably because the authors, William Hobson and James Busby, thought they would try to mimic the writing of lawyers when
they put quill to paper in the first few days of February 1840 to draft what was about to become the Treaty of Waitangi.

Although we cannot know for certain, it is reasonable to assume that before leaving Sydney for the Bay of Islands in January 1840, a local official pressed into Hobson's hands a few samples of existing treaties to help him with the constitutional task ahead of him.

Having left school before the age of 10, perhaps they thought that this soon-to-be governor could do with all the assistance he could get.

The result of a few days spent drafting the agreement by Hobson and Busby (and possibly others) was that New Zealand ended up with a Treaty that contains passages from the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, the 1825 British Sherbo Agreement and the 1826 Treaty between Britain and Soombia Soosoos, among others.

The outcome was inevitably a patchwork effort, with its stitching made all the more strained by the modest abilities of its authors, the haste at which they prepared the Treaty's text and the dubious nature of its translation by the missionary Henry Williams.

Yet, for all its evident shortcomings, there cannot be many other four-sentence documents in the world that have generated scores of books and innumerable articles and speeches, and that have shaped national politics and race relations as the Treaty of Waitangi has in New Zealand.

Ironically, the further away we move in time from when the Treaty was signed, the more New Zealand's status as a nation state seems to hinge on its clumsy clauses.

Sociologists might be able to read into this national reluctance to part with the Treaty as some deep-seated trait New Zealanders possess - perhaps a sort of security blanket that over time has become too familiar and comfortable to discard, despite its evident defects.

Others might see this as a national failing - a refusal to face the fact that New Zealand as a nation-state was instituted on the basis of a document that outwardly appears terminally flawed, and that from some angles looks as though it has endured well beyond its useful life. However, if we zoom out from narrow academic or constitutional analyses, there is another dimension to the Treaty - one analogous to a marriage - that casts the agreement in a more refreshing light. There is no doubt that the relationship 170 years later has evolved almost out of all recognition from its form in 1840 - maybe the same can be said of most decades-long marriages. Would any bride or groom be able to predict, on their wedding day, the character of their relationship in the years to come?

It is improbable, and yet many stick with their unions, despite occasional harsh words, difficult periods and all the other pressures agitating to separate them. Recalling those vows made between chiefs and the Crown at Waitangi and elsewhere 170 years ago is more than just a nostalgic homage or an exercise in faux patriotism. It is a reminder of the terms of a union between two sovereign peoples that is unique in modern history.

New Zealanders can look on their Treaty now with some pride, though not because it has been an unequivocally happy liaison. We cannot avert our gaze from some terrible episodes during the tenure of this union and pretend they never happened.

However, the sense of a shared experience in what will be two centuries counts for something. The nation has already demonstrated its ability to confront some of the transgressions of the past, and when necessary, apologies have been expressed, and restitution (of sorts) made.

Waitangi Day itself, though, is still an annual rite that has yet to fully shake off political tampering and be able to transcend something as petty as whether or not the prime minster of the day will attend the location where the agreement was first signed. It ought to be bigger than any individual, and if current momentum is anything to go by, it soon will. Maybe future historians will look on the first decade of the 21st century as a watershed in the saga of the Treaty.

What started as a cession of sovereignty in 1840, then lapsed from government attention for more than a century, to emerge in the 1970s as a source of rights and a cause for protest, might now be entering a new phase - the Treaty not as leverage for claims, but as a basis for a fruitful constitutional arrangement. It is still early days in this new era, but given the developments of the past 10 years there is at least cause for optimism.

* Dr Paul Moon is Professor of History at AUT University, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Discover more

Kahu

Hapu: 'Hate flag' at Waitangi would be breach of Treaty

06 Jan 10:50 PM
Kahu

PM's assailants start land protest

11 Jan 03:00 PM
Kahu

Support strong for separate Maori flag

03 Feb 03:00 PM
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

PoliticsUpdated

US attacks Iran: Winston Peters cites US 'acting in collective self-defence' claim in NZ's response

23 Jun 03:22 AM
New Zealand

Transport operators outraged over condition of SH2 bridge

23 Jun 03:00 AM
New Zealand

Afternoon quiz: Which actor portrayed Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic Elvis?

23 Jun 03:00 AM

How a Timaru mum of three budding chefs stretched her grocery shop

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

US attacks Iran: Winston Peters cites US 'acting in collective self-defence' claim in NZ's response

US attacks Iran: Winston Peters cites US 'acting in collective self-defence' claim in NZ's response

23 Jun 03:22 AM

Labour and the Greens want the Govt to declare the attacks a breach of international law.

Transport operators outraged over condition of SH2 bridge

Transport operators outraged over condition of SH2 bridge

23 Jun 03:00 AM
Afternoon quiz: Which actor portrayed Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic Elvis?

Afternoon quiz: Which actor portrayed Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic Elvis?

23 Jun 03:00 AM
Dinosaur nights break records as Auckland Zoo opens after dark

Dinosaur nights break records as Auckland Zoo opens after dark

23 Jun 02:30 AM
Anzor’s East Tāmaki hub speeds supply
sponsored

Anzor’s East Tāmaki hub speeds supply

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP