Kaitāia signing, 28 April 1840

The Waitangi sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi, first signed at Waitangi on 6 February 1840, was taken north to Kaitāia on the schooner New Zealander. When Colonial Secretary Willoughby Shortland arrived there on 28 April, Te Rarawa greeted him with musket fire and a haka. Sixty-one members of Te Rarawa signed the treaty; this was a unanimous decision, led by their rangatira (chief) Nōpera Pana-kareao.

Shortland travelled with Lieutenant H.D. Smart of the 28th Foot Regiment, sent from New South Wales, the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionary Richard Taylor, and Dr John Johnson, the colonial surgeon. The official party assembled at the home of CMS missionary William Gilbert Puckey in Kaitāia, and held the meeting on his veranda and lawn from 10 a.m. All five men witnessed that day’s signatures.

The treaty was explained by Shortland, with Puckey translating into Māori. The message was that the treaty would protect them from the lawless Pākehā who were already living in New Zealand, and from the illegal land sales that were occurring. It was stressed that British laws would otherwise not interfere with Māori customs. Puckey then read the Māori text of the treaty to the gathering, and invited discussion from Te Rarawa.

It became evident in the discussion that Te Rarawa had had time since 6 February to debate the treaty, and that their concerns centred around the regulation of land sales and trade. Nōpera Pana-kareao spoke last, from his higher position on the veranda, and reminded the gathering that Te Rarawa had always welcomed Pākehā, starting with Pana-kareao’s own grandfather, who had first brought Pākehā to Kaitāia. He said of Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson: ‘We have now a helmsman for our canoe. One said, “Let me steer,” and another said, “Let me steer,” and we never went straight.’ [1] Pana-kareao had visited Puckey’s house the day before to discuss the issue of sovereignty and governorship in the first article of the treaty. From his understanding of the meaning of the treaty, he told the group that ‘the shadow of the land is to the Queen, but the substance remains to us.’ [2] Pana-kareao urged all present to sign, which they did immediately.

The signing was concluded by a feast provided by Pana-kareao and an exchange of gifts. Pana-kareao gave the official party 12 tons of potatoes and kumara, eight pigs and dried shark. In return, Shortland gave the signatories 12 bales of blankets and a cask of tobacco.

Pana-kareao’s famous interpretation of the meaning of the treaty was reversed less than a year later as the Crown’s understanding of the treaty became clear. On 25 January 1841 Richard Taylor wrote in his journal that ‘Noble [Nōpera Pana-kareao] and all the chiefs are much dissatisfied with the Governor’s proceedings, he says he thought the shadow of the land only would go to the Queen and the substance remain with them, but now he fears the substance of it will go to them and the shadow only will be their portion.’ [3]

[1] Quoted in T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 186

[2] Quoted in Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi, Allen & Unwin, Port Nicholson Press with assistance from the Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1987, p. 82

[3] Quoted in R.S. Bennett, Treaty to treaty: a history of early New Zealand from the Treaty of Tordesillas 1494 to the Treaty of Waitangi 1840, vol. 3, R.S. Bennett, Auckland, 2012, p. 292