Post by Kiwi Frontline on Dec 2, 2023 17:13:00 GMT 12
P H writes > TREATY NOT A CONSTITUTIONAL DOCUMENT BUT A “SIMPLE NULLITY”
USED TABLE NAPKIN
The Treaty:
Article I
Ceded sovereignty to the Crown in perpetuity;
Article II
Guaranteed property rights in land and personal property to both the natives and pre-Treaty white settlers alike; and
Article III
Explicitly guaranteed to all individual Māori under the sovereign power acknowledged in Article I as henceforth prevailing —not just to the chiefs—all the rights and duties of British subjects.
Under the Treaty, one party (the Crown) digested and absorbed the parties on the other side of the agreement (the chiefs and those whom they represented).
From the moment the Treaty was signed it was thus analogous to a used table napkin after a meal, and other than as a historical artefact, about as relevant.
It was NEVER intended to be a ‘founding document.’
Whether NZers WANT to accept Te Tiriti as a ‘founding document’ and whether it has a meaning and intent outside of its simple black letter provisions is surely a matter for the wider NZ public to decide.
‘SIMPLE NULLITY’
The Treaty of Waitangi is a simple nullity in international law, because no body politic capable of ceding sovereignty existed in 1840.
It thus only has legal effect to the extent to which it has been – wrongly -- incorporated into domestic statute law.
Contrary to modern-day misrepresentation, the Treaty of Waitangi was not with a collective “Maori,” but with tribes, most of whom signed it, some of whom didn’t.
In February 1840, what is today New Zealand consisted of hundreds of these “dispersed and petty tribes,” each in a constant state of war with one another, and lacking any concept of nationhood.
There was no collective "Maori" or nation state. It was up to the white settlers to create one out of two main landmasses inhabited by hundreds of small groups or bands of subhuman cannibal savages existing in a Hobbesian state of nature with one another, in which “every man’s hand was against every other man’s,” "no man was secure in his life or in his property" and "life was nasty, brutish and short."
Some 512 chiefs signed the Treaty, while a substantial minority refused to, meaning there were probably around 600 of these individually insignificant groups.
In the absence of a universally acknowledged civil government and laws to provide for land ownership, in 1840, the various tribes owned NOTHING.
They simply used or occupied it until a stronger bunch of bullyboys came along and took it off them.
The only universally acknowledged system of laws was "te rau o te patu" [the law of the club] aka "might makes right."
Standing astride a bit of land, taiaha in hand, until someone puts a patu through your head and stuffs you in the hāngi pit is NOT ownership.
The Treaty of Waitangi was no more than a simple, moral and practical way of allowing Britain to proclaim sovereignty over all the Islands of New Zealand thereby heading off annexation-minded foreign competitors.
It allowed Britain to unite all the people of New Zealand (which included the Europeans already here as well as the settlers to come) in a newly-created nation state with one flag and one law, and to ensure the protection of its newly-minted Maori citizens from one another and the preservation of their lands.
Once the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, all Maori (including the chiefs) became British subjects, rendering it analogous to a used table napkin after a meal, and other than as a historical artefact, about as important.
As Governor Hobson unequivocally stated as he shook the hand of each chief on the lawn at Waitangi: “He iwi tahi tatou” (“Now we are one people”).
The Treaty of Waitangi can thus best be described not as “New Zealand’s founding document,” but as “New Zealand’s founding moment.”
Britain obtained sovereignty over the North Island by Treaty and over the South Island by Proclamation of Discovery on 21 May 1840.
The Proclamation made New Zealand a dependency of New South Wales as an interim measure.
Five months after Britain declared sovereignty over all the Islands of New Zealand, Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840 superseded the Treaty and the Proclamation, and was enacted into law on 3 May 1841.
The Royal Charter/Letters Patent was Our True Founding Document and First Constitution.
This separated New Zealand from New South Wales, turned New Zealand into a stand-alone British Colony with its own Governor and Constitution, and empowered a legal government to make laws with courts and judges to enforce those laws, all under the watchful eye of Great Britain.
In 1947 we became a Sovereign Nation when I we adopted the Statute of Westminster.
It is not the Treaty of Waitangi, but Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent, that is our First Constitution and True Founding Document.
It lies in the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand in Wellington gathering dust.
ENDS
USED TABLE NAPKIN
The Treaty:
Article I
Ceded sovereignty to the Crown in perpetuity;
Article II
Guaranteed property rights in land and personal property to both the natives and pre-Treaty white settlers alike; and
Article III
Explicitly guaranteed to all individual Māori under the sovereign power acknowledged in Article I as henceforth prevailing —not just to the chiefs—all the rights and duties of British subjects.
Under the Treaty, one party (the Crown) digested and absorbed the parties on the other side of the agreement (the chiefs and those whom they represented).
From the moment the Treaty was signed it was thus analogous to a used table napkin after a meal, and other than as a historical artefact, about as relevant.
It was NEVER intended to be a ‘founding document.’
Whether NZers WANT to accept Te Tiriti as a ‘founding document’ and whether it has a meaning and intent outside of its simple black letter provisions is surely a matter for the wider NZ public to decide.
‘SIMPLE NULLITY’
The Treaty of Waitangi is a simple nullity in international law, because no body politic capable of ceding sovereignty existed in 1840.
It thus only has legal effect to the extent to which it has been – wrongly -- incorporated into domestic statute law.
Contrary to modern-day misrepresentation, the Treaty of Waitangi was not with a collective “Maori,” but with tribes, most of whom signed it, some of whom didn’t.
In February 1840, what is today New Zealand consisted of hundreds of these “dispersed and petty tribes,” each in a constant state of war with one another, and lacking any concept of nationhood.
There was no collective "Maori" or nation state. It was up to the white settlers to create one out of two main landmasses inhabited by hundreds of small groups or bands of subhuman cannibal savages existing in a Hobbesian state of nature with one another, in which “every man’s hand was against every other man’s,” "no man was secure in his life or in his property" and "life was nasty, brutish and short."
Some 512 chiefs signed the Treaty, while a substantial minority refused to, meaning there were probably around 600 of these individually insignificant groups.
In the absence of a universally acknowledged civil government and laws to provide for land ownership, in 1840, the various tribes owned NOTHING.
They simply used or occupied it until a stronger bunch of bullyboys came along and took it off them.
The only universally acknowledged system of laws was "te rau o te patu" [the law of the club] aka "might makes right."
Standing astride a bit of land, taiaha in hand, until someone puts a patu through your head and stuffs you in the hāngi pit is NOT ownership.
The Treaty of Waitangi was no more than a simple, moral and practical way of allowing Britain to proclaim sovereignty over all the Islands of New Zealand thereby heading off annexation-minded foreign competitors.
It allowed Britain to unite all the people of New Zealand (which included the Europeans already here as well as the settlers to come) in a newly-created nation state with one flag and one law, and to ensure the protection of its newly-minted Maori citizens from one another and the preservation of their lands.
Once the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, all Maori (including the chiefs) became British subjects, rendering it analogous to a used table napkin after a meal, and other than as a historical artefact, about as important.
As Governor Hobson unequivocally stated as he shook the hand of each chief on the lawn at Waitangi: “He iwi tahi tatou” (“Now we are one people”).
The Treaty of Waitangi can thus best be described not as “New Zealand’s founding document,” but as “New Zealand’s founding moment.”
Britain obtained sovereignty over the North Island by Treaty and over the South Island by Proclamation of Discovery on 21 May 1840.
The Proclamation made New Zealand a dependency of New South Wales as an interim measure.
Five months after Britain declared sovereignty over all the Islands of New Zealand, Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840 superseded the Treaty and the Proclamation, and was enacted into law on 3 May 1841.
The Royal Charter/Letters Patent was Our True Founding Document and First Constitution.
This separated New Zealand from New South Wales, turned New Zealand into a stand-alone British Colony with its own Governor and Constitution, and empowered a legal government to make laws with courts and judges to enforce those laws, all under the watchful eye of Great Britain.
In 1947 we became a Sovereign Nation when I we adopted the Statute of Westminster.
It is not the Treaty of Waitangi, but Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent, that is our First Constitution and True Founding Document.
It lies in the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand in Wellington gathering dust.
ENDS