Historical Background: PDF 142KB
Historical Background: PDF 142KB
Historical Background: PDF 142KB
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HE TIROHANGA Ö KAWA KI TE TIRITI O WAITANGIIn conducting land sales, Hobson was advised that:All dealings with the aborigines for their lands must be conductedon the same principles of sincerity, justice, and goodfaith, as must govern your transactions with them for the recognitionof Her Majesty’s Sovereignty in the Islands. Nor is thisall; they must not be permitted to enter into any contracts inwhich they might be the ignorant and unintentional authors ofinjuries to themselves. You will not, for example, purchase fromthem any territory, the retention of which by them would beessential, or highly conducive, to their own comfort, safety orsubsistence. The acquisition of land by the Crown for the futuresettlement of British subjects must be confined to suchdistricts as the natives can alienate, without distress or seriousinconvenience to themselves. To secure the observance of this,- will be one of the first duties of their official protector. 85The role of the Official Protector of the Aborigines in the colonialgovernment was to safeguard Mäori interests in land negotiations. LordNormanby also outlined other measures to protect Mäori welfare, and,as one historian notes, these were ultimately aimed not at preservingtraditional Mäori society but at amalgamating Mäori with the Britishsettler community: 86There are yet other duties owing to the aborigines of New Zealand,which may be all comprised in the comprehensive expressionof promoting their civilisation, - understanding by that termwhatever relates to the religious, intellectual, and social advancementof mankind. For their religious instruction liberal provisionhas already been made by the zeal of the missionaries …and it will be at once the most important, and the most gratefulof your duties … to afford the utmost encouragement, protectionand support to their Christian teachers ... The establishmentof schools for the education of the aborigines in the elementsof literature will be another object of your solicitude;and until they can be brought within the pale of civilized life,and trained to the adoption of its habits, they must be carefullydefended in the observance of their own customs, so far as theseare compatible with the universal maxims of humanity andmorals. 87Lord Normanby advised that it remained to be considered how theprovisions of the instructions were to be brought into effect. Theinstructions, dated 14 August 1839 and some pages in length,recognised that:… we [the British Government] acknowledge New Zealand asa sovereign and independent state, so far at least as it is possible30