A stained glass window in the Māori Arts and Crafts Institute at Rotorua depicts the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. To paraphrase writer Rudyard Kipling, “what do they know of the Treaty who only the Treaty know?”Supplied The central issue of the Treaty of Waitangi is sovereignty. As problems with settler behaviour mounted, in 1839, Britain decided to end its 70-year policy of minimal involvement in New Zealand by arranging a formal agreement with hapū leaders to allow British sovereignty to apply in the country. Māori sovereignty was to remain intact. Britain had no intention to seize Māori sovereignty, not because of some sentimental altruism, but purely for pragmatic reasons.

Source: Stuff February 07, 2021 15:56 UTC