Waitangi Day - A Day For Togetherness
Colin James makes an excellent point in his Waitangi Day column (not online yet):
Today is a day drenched in symbols -- for those who go looking for them. For most it is just Saturday. We don't think enough of our "national" day to make it a weekday holiday.
Contrast that with our most respectful Monday-holiday commemoration of the Queen. Holiday-wise, she gets bigger billing than the nation. That is an intriguing symbol.
In fact, the Queen doesn't turn up to our national day. She doesn't even send her Willie. The Governor-General does turn up but these days the Governor-General is in effect the Prime Minister's appointee, not a regal delegate.
Yet Treaty of Waitangi folklore, in the wake of the Appeal Court's inventive lawmaking a quarter-century ago, supposes a "Crown" and supposes it a "partner" with Maori.
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Comments
Guy Fawkes Day. Hmmmm.
Not neccessarily republican...
*Ironic, given her later career as the Winter Queen of Bohemia, a Protestant icon...
What a shame we seem to have
Some content posted yesterday
This year the
This year the Governor-General is marking Waitangi Day in Akaroa, a somewhat curious choice given that the Treaty never applied to the South Island.
Nonsense - the Treaty was
Chair of the Republican Movement
Yes, the Treaty was signed in
I'm afraid this is historical fact, it isn't nonsense, though there is an awful lot of that talked about the Treaty.
I quote:
By this acceptance of the terms of the treaty, Hobson felt justified in concluding that such action “must be deemed a full and clear recognition of the sovereign-rights of Her Majesty over the northern parts of this land ….” This explains why he signed the treaty as “Consul and Lieutenant Governor” since the cession concerned the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />northern territory only. Thus the treaty signed on 6 February 1840 was but one of many steps in the “progressive acquisition of sovereignty”, for the cession of the whole of New Zealand , as Hobson realised, had to be won by instalments. With this in mind, Hobson was at the Waitemata on 21 February, but sudden illness ruined his plans. He therefore provided certain officials and missionaries with signed copies of the text of the treaty, and commissioned them to secure the signatures of the chiefs in districts hitherto uncanvassed. When, moreover, Major Thomas Bunbury arrived at the Bay of Islands from New South Wales in April 1840, he was sent as far south as Stewart Island in quest of signatures. But before Bunbury had time to return, Hobson forced the issue by proclaiming on 21 May 1840 that, by virtue of the rights and powers ceded to the Crown by the Treaty of Waitangi, the sovereignty of the Queen was established over the whole of the North Island . At the same time he proclaimed the authority of the Queen over the South Island and Stewart Island , on the grounds of discovery. These actions were subsequently approved by the British Government. When Hobson's dispatch of 25 May 1840 , with its enclosures, reached London , the proclamations were published in the London Gazette of 2 October. The British title to sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand was then beyond legal question; it was an accomplished fact.
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(http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/W/WaitangiTreatyOf/Preliminaries/en)
Technically all of New
In any case, arguing over whether the Treaty applied is kind of a moot point. The document itself was ignored, as you've pointed out, until adopted in statute in 1975.
Chair of the Republican Movement
"We don't think enough of our
"We don't think enough of our "national" day to make it a weekday holiday."
In actuality though it is a day full of angst! It is a day of protest and introspection and self-examination. For some years, we were even unsure whether it should be called NZ Day or Waitingi Day. If the National Day is to commemorate a Treaty that has become a matter for Tribunals and Court cases, what should we expect? The NZ Herald does not help by its series questioning our flag, which is still relatively popular. It has succeeded in encouraging this Waitangi Day to be a day for argument too. Waitangi too commemorates biculturalism - hardly inclusive of the MULTI-cultural society that we have become.
If we're a multicultural
Chair of the Republican Movement
Excuse me....was not
Excuse me....was not sovereignty and governorship - Kawanatanga vested in the british Crown. Did Maori not get the benefits and obligations of being British subjects. Even if some words are disputed. It sounds like they accepted the governorship of the British Crown to me.
Are you suggesting that we have a dual or even multiple Head of State....one for Maori and one for The Rest Of US. Even under a wonderful new republic the President would be seen as stemming from the British side of the treaty, the inheritor of the British Crown's obligations.
Are you suggesting that we
No, I'm pointing out the uncomfortable fact that we have a mono-cultural head of state, and ironically a multi-cultural de facto head of state.
Chair of the Republican Movement
It does seem like you are
It does seem like you are
Wrong again. I'm ashamed of the arguments put forward by some of my fellow New Zealanders in defence of the constitutional appendix that is the monarchy, since they nearly always boil down to colonial cringe, a lack of confidence in New Zealand, or tall poppy syndrome towards their fellow New Zealanders
Don't know what you're on about non-Maori society etc. Never said anything about the Treaty - but suffice to say our system of government was not frozen in 1840; we are not bound by the Treaty to be a monarchy forever.
Chair of the Republican Movement
I suggest we look for a
We'll make September 26th
Chair of the Republican Movement
November the 5th would be
Actually republic
November 5th?
Chair of the Republican Movement