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In 1840 Lieutenant-Governor William Hobson was charged with the task of securing British sovereignty over New Zealand. The result was the Treaty of Waitangi, widely regarded as New Zealand’s founding document. Around 500 Māori signed the Treaty at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands on 6 February 1840. Copies were then made and circulated to other parts of New Zealand for signing.
In April and May of 1840 Major Thomas Bunbury sailed around New Zealand on the HMS Herald, obtaining signatures for the Treaty of Waitangi. He was responsible for completing negotiations in the rest of the North Island and the whole of the South Island. On 28 May, the Herald stopped at Akaroa where two chiefs signed the Treaty. Bunbury and the Herald then travelled on to Ruapuke Island, Otago Harbour, and Cloudy Bay, before returning to the North Island. The trip resulted in 27 more signatures on a Māori-language copy of the Treaty.
Although he did not get the widespread agreement of South Island chiefs to the Treaty, Bunbury nonetheless proclaimed British sovereignty over the South Island before returning northwards. Listed amongst the signatories for the proclamation is Midshipman Henry Comber. The value, legitimacy and meaning of the Treaty have been matters for debate in New Zealand ever since.
Despite the Treaty’s early intent, European colonial society tended to ignore the Treaty when it was not in their best interests. For instance in 1844 a British parliamentary committee declared the Treaty 'injudicious' and proposed a tax on all 'uncultivated' Māori lands (NZ History on Line).
More recently, there have been attempts to redress the imbalances, and honour the Treaty. The Waitangi Tribunal was formed to investigate Māori grievances in 1975, and can now consider Māori grievances dating back to 1840. Some settlements between Māori and the Crown have resulted, but the debate about the place of the Treaty in modern New Zealand continues.
In addition to Comber’s journal, the UC Library also holds Major Bunbury’s published account of the signing of the Treaty, and William Colenso’s version of events, succinctly named ‘The authentic and genuine history of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand, February 5 and 6, 1840 : being a faithful and circumstantial, though brief, narration of events which happened on that memorable occasion : with copies of the Treaty in English and Māori, and of the three early proclamations respecting the founding of the colony’. There are also copies in English and Māori of Governor Hobson’s proclamations of British sovereignty over the new colony.
View extracts from Combers Journal relating to the Treaty of Waitangi
