Kapiti, 14 May 1840

After travelling to the top of the South Island to collect signatures for the Cook Strait (Henry Williams) copy of the Treaty of Waitangi, missionary Henry Williams, on board the Ariel, returned to the North Island, arriving on the Kapiti Coast on 14 May 1840. Missionary Octavius Hadfield joined the Ariel and witnessed the North Island signatures in place of the ship’s captain, George Thomas Clayton. However, Henry Williams continued to be the sole negotiator on this journey as Hadfield ‘would have preferred to have no connection at all with the government’. [1]

Four signatures were gained here for the treaty, including that of Te Rauparaha, the important rangatira (chief) of Ngāti Toa. In Governor William Hobson’s instructions to Henry Williams, he had said that Williams’s ‘principal object’ was securing the adherence of Te Rauparaha because it would grant the Crown ‘undisputed right of sovereignty over all the southern districts’. [2] Te Rauparaha’s agreement was also important for the influence it had over other rangatira in the area.

Another signatory on this date was Te Rauparaha’s son Tamihana Te Rauparaha, who wrote ‘Katu’ (a name by which he was also known) as his signature. Tamihana’s cousin Hēnare Mātene Te Whiwhi wrote his name as Te Wiwi. His mother, Rangi Topeora, Te Rauparaha’s neice, also signed. Both Te Rauparaha and Rangi Topeora signed next to their names, written by Williams, with unique markings.