In reply to Tony Fellingham (The Weekend Sun, June 7), Don Brash and Hobson's Pledge are seen to be divisive because they want to set aside the decision of Parliament that the Treaty of Waitangi is a legally binding partnership agreement between the government and Maori.

Mr Brash says that he can see nothing in the Treaty that grants racial preference to Maori. The words of the English and Maori versions of the Treaty together granted to Maori tribes 'full authority (rangatiratanga) over their estates, lands, forests, fisheries, and other valued possessions (taonga)".

That promise to Maori still holds, so saying that the Treaty grants no racial preference is deliberately misleading.

The equality that Don Brash and Hobson's Pledge propose would be a return to the days when the Treaty and Maori rights were disregarded, based on the belief that Pakeha culture is superior, and Maori should just become brown Pakeha.

Of course this is divisive because as a nation we rightly no longer believe that the Pakeha majority is entitled to force their views on everybody else and Maori can be ignored.

Peter Dey, Welcome Bay