Category: Maori Issues
The official British Government position concerning who exercised sovereignty over New Zealand at the beginning of the ninetieth century is summarised in the instructions given by Lord Normanby to his appointed Consul Captain William Hobson before he sailed for New Zealand on the 25th August 1839.
Nowadays New Zealand is a nation of peoples from all over the globe. The commonality between us all is that we call New Zealand our home. We like to think we are a nation of equals - but there are many who seek to divide us by race.
A couple of days before Waitangi Day I had a call from David Fisher of the “Herald” telling me that Dr Morgan would be going to the Orewa Rotary Club to give a speech criticising what he called “ignorant Brash-think” about the Treaty.
Poor test results and falling standards are symptoms that all is not well with the education system. They cast doubt on the radical reforms introduced by the previous Labour Government during its last term in office.
For many years as a practising teacher in New Zealand, I watched the gradual but tangible creep of Maori influence upon the NZ education system. ‘And what is wrong with that?’ the Maori educationists and culturally liberated activists, may cry. ‘Nothing at all’, I would reply, ‘so long as the same opportunity is offered to every other ethnic group in the country’.
Apathy and indifference are major threats to our democracy, not only through low voter turnouts in elections, but more importantly, by leaving open a window of opportunity for extremist minority interest groups to impose their will on the majority.
To speak of the Waitangi Tribunal’s agenda is no exaggeration. It is now nothing but a grandly-titled taxpayer-funded Maori lobby group, whose continued existence is increasingly perilous to the country and indefensible on any rational grounds.
Not content with forcing a Maori Ward onto his district at the next local body election, New Plymouth’s Mayor, Andrew Judd, is now calling for a law change so that half of all councillors in New Zealand will be Maori.
There is an old Chinese proverb: “When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago. When is the second best time to plant a tree? Now.” It’s the same with the Waitangi Tribunal. The best time to have shut it down was in the in 1985, before historical claims were allowed to be considered.
Last week the Waitangi Tribunal released WAI 1040 – a report into the claim by Ngapuhi and other northern iwi that their chiefs did not cede sovereignty to the Crown when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi.
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