Notes

"The Treaty of Waitangi was a simple, 375-word document, consisting of three articles, a preamble and a postscript, by which Queen Victoria obtained sovereignty over the anarchic and bloodstained islands of New Zealand (first article). Maori were guaranteed possession of their property that they could sell to the government (second article), and all Maori including the many slaves became the Queen's subjects, equal to Britons - an unprecedented status for tribal people at that time. The treaty did not give Maori any special rights but radicals of the late 20th century and their collaborators in Parliament and on the Bench have created a quite different treaty that allowed the government to govern settlers only while letting chiefs carry on being chiefs.