Post by Kiwi Frontline on Sept 15, 2019 5:16:52 GMT 12
Sunday Star Times 15/9/19
LOST IN TREATY TRANSLATION
Sir Michael Cullen (‘‘Former Treasurer negotiates a pathway between two worlds’’, News, September 8) states that Maori are entitled to claim an allocation of and royalties from water because the Treaty of Waitangi guaranteed their taonga.
However, in 1840 taonga meant ‘‘property acquired by the point of the spear’’. Article two of the Treaty merely restated the property rights which Maori were entitled to as British subjects. Today the word taonga has been re-interpreted as meaning ‘‘treasure’’, and is now used for the basis of claiming pretty much anything. This is one example of how the Treaty of Waitangi has been twisted and distorted to mean something that it never meant in 1840.
It was also stated that the Waitangi Tribunal has recommended the Government create a national water commission in co-governance with Maori. Co-governance is a modern-day invention not mentioned anywhere in the Treaty.
VAUGHN HUMBERSTONE, Pukekohe
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
LOST IN TREATY TRANSLATION
Sir Michael Cullen (‘‘Former Treasurer negotiates a pathway between two worlds’’, News, September 8) states that Maori are entitled to claim an allocation of and royalties from water because the Treaty of Waitangi guaranteed their taonga.
However, in 1840 taonga meant ‘‘property acquired by the point of the spear’’. Article two of the Treaty merely restated the property rights which Maori were entitled to as British subjects. Today the word taonga has been re-interpreted as meaning ‘‘treasure’’, and is now used for the basis of claiming pretty much anything. This is one example of how the Treaty of Waitangi has been twisted and distorted to mean something that it never meant in 1840.
It was also stated that the Waitangi Tribunal has recommended the Government create a national water commission in co-governance with Maori. Co-governance is a modern-day invention not mentioned anywhere in the Treaty.
VAUGHN HUMBERSTONE, Pukekohe
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers