The Waitangi Day Act 1960

The four Labour-Ratana Maori MPs (Tiaki Omana, Tapihana Paikea, Iriaka Ratana, Eruera Tirikatene) persuaded Labour to promise in its 1957 manifesto that 6 February would be declared a public holiday in view of the treaty's historical significance and its influence on Pakeha-Maori relations. Labour won the 1957 election, and finally passed the Waitangi Day Act in 1960.

The sixth day of February would be known as Waitangi Day, and would be observed throughout the country 'as a national day of thanksgiving in commemoration of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.' The act did not provide for a public holiday, although any locality could substitute Waitangi Day for any public holiday it already observed. A copy of the treaty in English was appended as a schedule.

Without the holiday the act was not much more than a gesture, but Prime Minister Walter Nash defended it. He noted Maori requests for a day of thanksgiving, and that 6 February was already being marked overseas as a New Zealand Day. The Prime Minister envisaged schools building on the recognition that some had been giving the day since the 1940s. But a paid public holiday would be too costly. Nash was also anxious to minimise any suggestion of divisiveness: 'We should not think of ourselves as Maoris or pakehas, but rather as one people.'

Maori requests for a national day and a public holiday continued, and in 1963 a National government passed the Waitangi Day Amendment Act. Waitangi Day now supplanted the Auckland provincial anniversary day for Northland - a move that merely served to reinforce identification of the day with the north. But the National government was no more ready than its predecessor to introduce a new universal paid holiday, nor to substitute Waitangi Day for the country's provincial holidays.