Post by Kiwi Frontline on Aug 20, 2019 5:17:51 GMT 12
Dear Editor, (Sent to the Wanganui Chronicle 17/8/19)
People who think like Rob Rattenbury that any Maori suffered trauma from colonization should recall the fate of their Taranaki neighbours a few years before 1840 when the Pukerangiora pa was captured by Waikato tribes. About 1300 were victims of cannibal feasts, some thrown into the ovens alive. A similar number were taken away by the Waikato, carrying the tattooed heads of their kinfolk which the Waikato decided to keep as trophies. The establishment of British sovereignty enabled them to return to their homes. Colonization was their salvation.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor (Sent to the Otago Daily times 16/8/19)
Re articles from Jean Balchin then Erik Olssen 30.7.19.
I consider Erik more acceptable in her writing, many like Jean’s writings are what is causing division in this country, there is to much negative regarding Captain James Cook he was a clever man and mapped all of NZ, he was not a coloniser, if it had not been him, the French or someone else would have been here, it was inevitable!
Yes we should teach more NZ history, but whose writings, there is so much being rewritten of our history and trying to change our history.
Cook is our history so is colonisation and much was for the good. I don't notice a lot being told about the Maori mass murderers ,Te Kooti and Te Rauparaha who went through NZ murdering their own people and white and eating them. Then to ad insult on insult the country has apologised to their descendants and give them a Payout.
Lately there has been the large payout to the Chatham island Morirori tribe, which should have come from the Taranaki Tribes not the NZ taxpayer. It was the Taranaki Tribe that went there and murdered them and pegged them out on the beach.
So if you are going to tell the NZ history you have to tell it all. Not just insults to the likes of Cook, this is why and what is causing a division in our country, it is all very one sided.
C.HUMPHREYS, Katikati
Dear Editor (Sent to the Nelson Mail)
Gary Clover (letters, August 10th) has completely misunderstood what the Treaty of Waitangi was about. Does he really believe that Queen Victoria would ever contemplate sitting down to negotiate with a primitive, aboriginal people the rights to “control the flood of incoming settlers”? He is dreaming. The old Maori chiefs weren’t silly. In those days all Maori tribes were competing to attract as many European settlers as possible to their various localities. They signed the Treaty of Waitangi because they, being mentally so bright, had completely understood that peculiar European cultural idea of legally enforced, personal ownership of land (which was so different from theirs) - and they wanted some regulation here so that they would not suddenly find themselves without any land to call their own. Hence the treaty. And I do not think you will find a similar document anywhere else in the world. That is why we, all of us, can be so proud.
And has Gary Clover not noticed that over the last 25 years we have successfully negotiated redress (and necessary apologies) with Maori? Why, all of a sudden, do some people now wish to scrap the Treaty of Waitangi and institute a new, untried type of dual nationhood?
ANDY ESPERSEN, Nelson
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters
People who think like Rob Rattenbury that any Maori suffered trauma from colonization should recall the fate of their Taranaki neighbours a few years before 1840 when the Pukerangiora pa was captured by Waikato tribes. About 1300 were victims of cannibal feasts, some thrown into the ovens alive. A similar number were taken away by the Waikato, carrying the tattooed heads of their kinfolk which the Waikato decided to keep as trophies. The establishment of British sovereignty enabled them to return to their homes. Colonization was their salvation.
BRUCE MOON, Nelson
Dear Editor (Sent to the Otago Daily times 16/8/19)
Re articles from Jean Balchin then Erik Olssen 30.7.19.
I consider Erik more acceptable in her writing, many like Jean’s writings are what is causing division in this country, there is to much negative regarding Captain James Cook he was a clever man and mapped all of NZ, he was not a coloniser, if it had not been him, the French or someone else would have been here, it was inevitable!
Yes we should teach more NZ history, but whose writings, there is so much being rewritten of our history and trying to change our history.
Cook is our history so is colonisation and much was for the good. I don't notice a lot being told about the Maori mass murderers ,Te Kooti and Te Rauparaha who went through NZ murdering their own people and white and eating them. Then to ad insult on insult the country has apologised to their descendants and give them a Payout.
Lately there has been the large payout to the Chatham island Morirori tribe, which should have come from the Taranaki Tribes not the NZ taxpayer. It was the Taranaki Tribe that went there and murdered them and pegged them out on the beach.
So if you are going to tell the NZ history you have to tell it all. Not just insults to the likes of Cook, this is why and what is causing a division in our country, it is all very one sided.
C.HUMPHREYS, Katikati
Dear Editor (Sent to the Nelson Mail)
Gary Clover (letters, August 10th) has completely misunderstood what the Treaty of Waitangi was about. Does he really believe that Queen Victoria would ever contemplate sitting down to negotiate with a primitive, aboriginal people the rights to “control the flood of incoming settlers”? He is dreaming. The old Maori chiefs weren’t silly. In those days all Maori tribes were competing to attract as many European settlers as possible to their various localities. They signed the Treaty of Waitangi because they, being mentally so bright, had completely understood that peculiar European cultural idea of legally enforced, personal ownership of land (which was so different from theirs) - and they wanted some regulation here so that they would not suddenly find themselves without any land to call their own. Hence the treaty. And I do not think you will find a similar document anywhere else in the world. That is why we, all of us, can be so proud.
And has Gary Clover not noticed that over the last 25 years we have successfully negotiated redress (and necessary apologies) with Maori? Why, all of a sudden, do some people now wish to scrap the Treaty of Waitangi and institute a new, untried type of dual nationhood?
ANDY ESPERSEN, Nelson
sites.google.com/site/kiwifrontline/letters-submitted-to-newspapers/unpublished-letters