Signing
| Signature | Sheet | Signed as | Probable name | Tribe | Hapū | Signing Occasion |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 178 | Sheet 1 — The Waitangi Sheet | Matiu Huhu | Matiu Huhu | Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa | Kaitāia 28 April 1840 |
Matiu Huhu signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 28 April 1840 at Kaitāia. He was the brother of Pāpāhia, who signed the treaty in the Bay of Islands sometime in 1840.
At the signing, he is recorded as saying, ‘If your thoughts are as our thoughts in Christ, let us be one. We believe your hearts to be good. The Pakehas bought all our land and we have no more.’[1]
Huhu also showed doubts about the missionaries. He ‘doubted that the governor came as a shepherd and thought instead that he came to kill them and take the land for many Pakeha who would follow.’[2]
[1] Quoted in T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 149
[2] Adrienne Puckey, Trading cultures: a history of the Far North, Huia, Wellington, 2011, p. 39
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