(2) All Sovereign powers and authority within the territories of the United tribes of New Zealand is hereby declared to reside entirely and exclusively in the hereditary chiefs and heads of the tribes in their collective capacity, who also declare that they will not permit any legislative authority separate from themselves in their collective capacity to exist, nor any function of Government to be exercised within the said territories unless by persons appointed by them and acting under the authority of laws regularly enacted by them in Congress a.s.sembled.
(3) The hereditary chiefs and heads of the tribes agree to meet in Congress at Waitangi, in the autumn of each year, for the purpose of framing laws for the dispensation of justice, the preservation of peace and good order, and the regulation of trade, and they cordially invite the Southern tribes to lay aside their private animosities, and to consult the safety and welfare of our common country by joining the confederation of the United tribes.
(4) They also agree to send a copy of this declaration to His Majesty the King of England, to thank him for his acknowledgment of their flag, and in return for the friendship and protection they have shown and are prepared to show to such of his subjects as have settled in their country, or resorted to its sh.o.r.es for the purpose of trade, they entreat that he will continue to be the parent of their infant State, and that he will become its protector from all attempts upon its independence.
AGREED unanimously on this 28th day of October 1835 in the presence of His Britannic Majesty"s Resident.
_English Witnesses_:
HENRY WILLIAMS, Missionary C.M.S.
GEORGE CLARKE, " "
JAMES C. CLENDON, Merchant.
GILBERT MAIR, "
(Translated by the Missionaries and certified to by James Busby, British Resident.)
NAMES OF CHIEFS SIGNING DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE,
October 28, 1835.
AWAROA.
HARE HONGI.
HEMI KEPA TUPE.
WARE POAKA.
WAIKATO.
t.i.tORE.
MOKA.
WHARERAHI.
KEWA.
WAI.
REWETI ATUAHAERE.
AWA.
WIREMU TE TI TAUNUI.
TE NANA.
PI.
KAUA.
TAREHA.
KAWITI.
PUMUKA.
KE KEAE.
TE KAMARA.
POMARE.
WIWIA.
TE TAO.
MARUPO.
KOPIU.
WARAU.
NGERE.
MOETARA.
HIAMOE.
PUKUTUTU.
TE PEKA.
HONE WIREMU HEKE.
PAERARA.
ERERA PARE (te kai-tuhituhi).
SUBSEQUENT SIGNATURES TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
NENE (Tamati Waaka).
HUHU.
PATUONE.
PARORE, June 25, 1837.
TOWA.
PANAKAREAO (Nopera).
KIWI KIWI, Jan. 13, 1836.
TIRARAU, Feb. 9, 1836.
HAMUREA PITA, March 29, 1836.
TAWHAI.
MATE.
KAHA, June 25, 1837.
TE MORENGA, July 12, 1837.
MAHIA.
TAONUI, Jan. 16, 1838.
PAPAHIA, Sept. 24, 1838.
HAPUKU, Sept. 25, 1838.
TE WHEROWHERO, July 22, 1839.[22]
[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES BUSBY.]
A few days prior to this meeting at Waitangi and the proclamation of their independence by the chiefs, Mr. Busby issued (on October 10, 1835) a stirring appeal to his scattered countrymen, in which he announced that he had received from "a person who styles himself Charles Baron de Thierry, Sovereign chief of New Zealand, and King of Nukuheva, one of the Marquesas Islands, a formal declaration of his intention to establish in his own person an independent sovereignty in this country, which intention he states he has declared to their Majesties the Kings of Great Britain and France, and to the President of the United States, and that he is now waiting at Otaheite the arrival of an armed ship from Panama to enable him to proceed to the Bay of Islands with strength to maintain his a.s.sumed authority. His intention is founded on an alleged invitation given to him in England by Shunghee (Hongi) and other chiefs, none of whom as individuals had any right to the sovereignty of the country, and consequently possessed no authority to convey a right of sovereignty to another; also upon an alleged purchase made for him in 1822 by a Mr. Kendall of three districts on the Hokianga River from three chiefs who had only a partial property in these districts, parts of which are now settled by British subjects by virtue of purchase from the rightful proprietors.
The British Resident has also seen an elaborate exposition of his views which this person has addressed to the Missionaries of the C.M.S., in which he makes the most ample promises to all persons, whether whites or natives, who will accept his invitation to live under his Government, and in which he offers a stipulated salary to each individual in order to induce him to act as his Magistrate. It is also supposed he may have made similar communications to other persons or cla.s.ses of His Majesty"s subjects, who are hereby invited to make such communications, or any information on this subject they may possess, known to the British Resident or to Lieutenant MacDonnell.
The British Resident has too much confidence in the loyalty and good sense of his countrymen to think it necessary to caution them against turning a favourable ear to such insidious promises. He firmly believes that the paternal protection of the British Government which has never failed any of His Majesty"s subjects, however remote, will not be withheld from them, should it be necessary to prevent their lives, liberties, or property from being subjected to the caprice of any adventurer who may choose to make this country, in which British subjects have now by the most lawful means acquired so large a stake, the theatre of his ambitious projects; nor in the British Resident"s opinion will His Majesty, after acknowledging the sovereignty of the New Zealand chiefs in their collective capacity, by the recognition of their flag, permit his humble and confiding allies to be deprived of their independence upon such pretensions. But although the British Resident is of opinion that such an attempt as is now announced must ultimately fail, he nevertheless conceives that if such a person were once allowed to obtain a footing in the country, he might acquire such an influence over the simple-minded natives as would produce effects which could not be too much deprecated, or too anxiously provided against, and he has therefore considered it his duty to request the British settlers of all cla.s.ses to use all the influence they possess with the natives of every rank in order to counteract the efforts of any emissaries who may have arrived or may arrive amongst them, and to inspire both chiefs and people with a spirit of the most determined resistance to the landing of a person on their sh.o.r.es who comes with the avowed intention of usurping a sovereignty over them.
The British Resident will take immediate steps for calling together the native chiefs in order to inform them of this attempt upon their independence, and to advise them of what is due to themselves and to their country, and of the protection which British subjects are ent.i.tled to at their hands, and he has no doubt that such a manifestation will be exhibited of the characteristic spirit, courage, and independence of the New Zealanders, as will stop at the outset such an attempt upon their liberties, by demonstrating its utter hopelessness."
It is somewhat difficult to say, in the absence of contemporary newspapers, what impression was created in the public mind by the Resident"s proclamation or by the native Declaration of Independence, but in due course the latter was, in accordance with the unanimous desire of the chiefs, "laid at the feet of His Majesty," and in the following year--so tardy was communication in those days--it was courteously, but guardedly acknowledged by Lord Glenelg, who wrote to Governor Bourke:
"With reference to the desire which the chiefs have expressed on this occasion, to maintain a good understanding with His Majesty"s subjects, it will be proper that they be a.s.sured, in His Majesty"s name, that he will not fail to avail himself of every opportunity of showing his goodwill, and of affording to those chiefs such support and protection as may be consistent with a due regard to others, and to the interests of His Majesty"s subjects."
Left to its own devices, the native Confederation was faced with a task that proved altogether too exacting for its resources, and it cannot be claimed for the new authority that it remodelled the Government or reclaimed the dissolute society by which it was surrounded. Had it been possible to restrict the intercourse of the natives to the Missionaries and the more respectable portion of the settlers, they might, combined with the counsels of the Resident, have been speedily induced to form an effective administration amongst themselves, and that important stage once reached, they, with their quick intelligence, might have easily acquired a working knowledge of the higher principles of self-government. But thrust as they were in the midst of a strangely confused community, any such limitation was obviously impossible.
Even if it had been practicable, the irreconcilable differences which had sprung up between the Resident and the Missionaries, of which the natives were perfectly cognisant, necessarily detracted from the beneficial influence which an official in Mr. Busby"s position might, and ought to have wielded.
The absence of the physical force which Mr. Busby pined for was unmistakably against the due observance of the ordinary decencies of life, for the people whom Captain Fitzroy had described as "ragam.u.f.fins," and Captain Hobson had still more emphatically condemned as "abandoned ruffians," were scarcely likely to be amenable to anything more gentle than the grip of the handcuff or the probe of the bayonet. It was therefore to but little purpose that the Confederation should pa.s.s ordinances which, if not respected, could not be enforced.
The difficulties of the Confederation acc.u.mulated with the increase of trade and population, both of which were growing rapidly. In the year 1836 no fewer than 93 British, 54 American, and 3 French ships put in at the Bay of Islands. The irregular settlement of white people at various spots along the coast had increased in like manner, until in the early part of 1838 a body of no less than 2000 British subjects had taken up their permanent abode in New Zealand. The part these people were playing in the scheme of civilisation was still small, if we are to accept as accurate the verdict of Dr. G. R. Jameson, who in his _Travels in New Zealand_ has taken the responsibility of saying that from all he had seen and heard respecting the fixed traders, or the casual visitors for trade, it could be affirmed in the most positive terms that not one of them had ever attempted to teach a native to read or write, or to communicate to his mind one ray of Christian knowledge or of moral rect.i.tude. With a few honourable exceptions they had been in their intercourse with the natives guided by one ruling impulse--the love of gain. Their predominant aim was ever and always to obtain the greatest possible quant.i.ty of pigs, potatoes, flax, maize, labour, or land in exchange for the smallest possible amount of tobacco, ammunition, and piece-goods.[23]
It was not alone, however, by the criminal taint of a large section of the population and this excessive hunger for trade that the seeds of continued anarchy were sown. A new evil was at hand which threatened to sap the independence of the Maori, and reduce them to a condition of speedy and abject poverty. This was the land hunger which about this time seized the white population of Australia. There the opinion had gripped the public mind that under the Declaration of Independence it would be possible to pursue in New Zealand the schemes of land aggregation which Sir George Gipps had checked in New South Wales.