A number of questions concern me about the Treaty Principles Bill, but let me go back to before The Treaty of Waitangi. A number of Māori chiefs,devastated over the number of deaths of tribal members in the musket wars, went to England to ask the King to send troops to the new colony to restore peace between the warring tribes. They duly arrived and helped to restore some form of peace. After this, another group of settlers drafted a Treaty based on the earlier proceedings, guaranteeing certain things in three articles which was signed, after considerable discussion, at Waitangi on 6 February 6, 1840. Parts of this Treaty were broken by settlers and Māori over the next years, which were settled by means available at the time.

Move forward to today and a bill is tabled in Parliament to clarify what is meant in today’s terms of the document written and signed 184 years ago and all hell has broken loose.

Māori are particularly upset because the Treaty was between them and the Crown. My next question is, who is the Crown if not all the citizens of New Zealand. I believe it is all New Zealanders who have a right to discuss the Treaty so we all know what it stands for. One thing I know is that the Treaty was signed by two groups, Māori and the Crown, and as neither are the same people who signed the original document, we should all take a deep breath and listen to all points raised. We might all learn something

Peter Burrell, Pāpāmoa.