Post by Kiwi Frontline on Jun 21, 2019 5:05:12 GMT 12
Weekend Sun / Sunlive 21/6/19
EQUAL POLITICAL RIGHTS
Peter Dey (The Weekend Sun, June 14) is wrong on so many counts it’s hard to know where to start.
Mr Dey should provide evidence that Parliament has formally decided that the Treaty of Waitangi is a “legally binding partnership agreement” between Maori and the Crown because I most certainly cannot recall such a vote. Justice Cooke did suggest that the Treaty did create a relationship in the nature of a partnership, but he did not suggest that that was a partnership of equals, as Peter Dey implies.
Political leaders as different as David Lange and Winston Peters have dismissed as absurd the notion that Queen Victoria, head of the greatest empire the world had seen to that date, would have entered into a partnership of equals with 500 chiefs on the far side of the world, almost none of whom she had ever met and most of whom were illiterate.
Article II of the Treaty guaranteed Maori ownership of their property, which they were entitled to sell to an agent of the Queen if they so wished. Of course, most of that property was sold decades ago. There is not, in the Maori language version of the Treaty, any mention of forests or fisheries.
Mr Dey argues that the equality which Hobson’s Pledge argues for is “based on the belief that Pakeha culture is superior”. Well, it certainly was vastly superior to Maori culture in 1840, with Maori culture having no written language, no knowledge of the wheel, and no knowledge of any metals.
But our argument today is not based on which culture was or is superior but on the simple notion that there can be no racial harmony in New Zealand unless all citizens have equal political rights, and it was exactly that equality of political rights that Article III of the Treaty guaranteed to us all.
DON BRASH, Auckland
A FUNNY OLD WORLD
Peter Dey (The Weekend Sun, June 21) clearly isn't keen on Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi which grants equality of citizenship to all New Zealanders and he is even less keen on Don Brash mentioning it.
It’s a funny old world where someone can be called divisive for advocating for democracy, equally of citizenship and supporting free speech.
Dey claims Article 2 gives special rights to Maori. A reading of the Treaty would show him that the protection of property rights under Article 2 applies to all of the people of New Zealand - Tangata kotoa o Nu Tirani.
We need to be a country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equally under the law.
If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders we will fail as country.
RICHARD PRINCE, Welcome Bay
New Zealand Herald 21/6/19
ORANGA TAMARIKI BETTER THAN ALTERNATIVE
As a proud New Zealander with a little Maori ancestry, my heart bursts with pride when I see a great haka or hear a beautiful waiata. However, I am ashamed to see (Herald, June 19) some of our people preventing at-risk Maori babies being taken into state care.
Where were these people when the young mother was born into a house of poverty and neglect? Where were they when she needed a bedtime story? Where were they when she went to school without lunch? Where were they at parent-teacher interviews? Where were they on those cold Saturday mornings at netball? And where were they when she got pregnant to a boy from the same background?
Our ancestors would cry in shame at how some of our tamariki are treated. Being brought up in state care is far from perfect but it sure beats the alternative.
D ADAMS, Mt Albert.
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers
EQUAL POLITICAL RIGHTS
Peter Dey (The Weekend Sun, June 14) is wrong on so many counts it’s hard to know where to start.
Mr Dey should provide evidence that Parliament has formally decided that the Treaty of Waitangi is a “legally binding partnership agreement” between Maori and the Crown because I most certainly cannot recall such a vote. Justice Cooke did suggest that the Treaty did create a relationship in the nature of a partnership, but he did not suggest that that was a partnership of equals, as Peter Dey implies.
Political leaders as different as David Lange and Winston Peters have dismissed as absurd the notion that Queen Victoria, head of the greatest empire the world had seen to that date, would have entered into a partnership of equals with 500 chiefs on the far side of the world, almost none of whom she had ever met and most of whom were illiterate.
Article II of the Treaty guaranteed Maori ownership of their property, which they were entitled to sell to an agent of the Queen if they so wished. Of course, most of that property was sold decades ago. There is not, in the Maori language version of the Treaty, any mention of forests or fisheries.
Mr Dey argues that the equality which Hobson’s Pledge argues for is “based on the belief that Pakeha culture is superior”. Well, it certainly was vastly superior to Maori culture in 1840, with Maori culture having no written language, no knowledge of the wheel, and no knowledge of any metals.
But our argument today is not based on which culture was or is superior but on the simple notion that there can be no racial harmony in New Zealand unless all citizens have equal political rights, and it was exactly that equality of political rights that Article III of the Treaty guaranteed to us all.
DON BRASH, Auckland
A FUNNY OLD WORLD
Peter Dey (The Weekend Sun, June 21) clearly isn't keen on Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi which grants equality of citizenship to all New Zealanders and he is even less keen on Don Brash mentioning it.
It’s a funny old world where someone can be called divisive for advocating for democracy, equally of citizenship and supporting free speech.
Dey claims Article 2 gives special rights to Maori. A reading of the Treaty would show him that the protection of property rights under Article 2 applies to all of the people of New Zealand - Tangata kotoa o Nu Tirani.
We need to be a country where we celebrate our differences, where our diversity enriches us, where ethnicity matters but does not bestow privilege, where all citizens are united equally under the law.
If we continue down the path of separatism and don't unite as New Zealanders we will fail as country.
RICHARD PRINCE, Welcome Bay
New Zealand Herald 21/6/19
ORANGA TAMARIKI BETTER THAN ALTERNATIVE
As a proud New Zealander with a little Maori ancestry, my heart bursts with pride when I see a great haka or hear a beautiful waiata. However, I am ashamed to see (Herald, June 19) some of our people preventing at-risk Maori babies being taken into state care.
Where were these people when the young mother was born into a house of poverty and neglect? Where were they when she needed a bedtime story? Where were they when she went to school without lunch? Where were they at parent-teacher interviews? Where were they on those cold Saturday mornings at netball? And where were they when she got pregnant to a boy from the same background?
Our ancestors would cry in shame at how some of our tamariki are treated. Being brought up in state care is far from perfect but it sure beats the alternative.
D ADAMS, Mt Albert.
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers