Why Did the Chiefs Sign The Treaty In 1840?
Yesterday I was talking with a good friend and she asked me the question “Why Did the Chiefs Sign The Treaty In 1840?”
She said she had other friends asking the same question, and in a round about way, asked me if I could answer this question in a blog post. So here goes.
There were two main reasons Maori wanted a Treaty, which I will detail one at a time.
First, Maori feared the French and wanted British protection from them.
In October 1831 a missionary named William Yate drafted a letter for chiefs to send to King William IV of England asking for protection against the French. Why? What had happened? In 1772 French explorer Marion du Fresne visited New Zealand. He and 26 of his crew were attacked and eaten by Maori. The French retaliated and killed 250 Maori. This killing of Maori left a lasting impression. Historian Bruce Moon writes “Maoris knew that the French had not forgotten the Marion du Fresne affair - they still referred to the French as ‘The tribe of Marion’.”1
Then in May 1833 James Busby (left) was appointed by the British as “British Resident” in New Zealand. The term “British Resident” meant something in the order of the King’s official representative, much like an ambassador.
His brief was to “protect settlers and traders, prevent ‘outrages’ by Europeans against Māori, and apprehend escaped convicts.”
Busby believed that a French explorer Baron De Thierry was part of a French plot to annex New Zealand. By the time February 6th 1840 came around, it was not just Maori thinking the French were coming, but Busby was thinking the same.
Second, by 1840 the world of Maori was falling apart, and they cried out to the British for help.
Maori tribes had always been at war with each other. But when the British arrived, so too did a western killing machine, the musket. When Maori obtained muskets, their warfare and killing of each other went to whole new levels. This was Maori killing Maori, not the British killing Maori. We need to be clear about this.
Historian Dr John Robinson writes “The fighting peaked in the five years from 1820 to 1825, but remained at a high level through the 1830s. According to the historian James Rutherford, there has been 506 significant battles and 36,500 casualties between 1800 and 1830. From 1831 - 1840, there were a further 96 significant battles and 7,100 casualties. Around one third of the Maori population perished in just forty years.”2 “From 1800 to 1840, up to 50,000 people had been killed.”3
1 Moon, Bruce. Twisting The Treaty. A Tribal Grab For Wealth And Power. Tross Publishing. 2013. p 29
2 Robinson, John. Twisting The Treaty. A Tribal Grab For Wealth And Power. Tross Publishing. 2013. p 18
3 Butler, Mike. The Treaty Basic Facts. Tross Publishing. 2021. p.25
Essentially Maori were self annihilating, killing and eating each other.
Historian Bruce Moon writes “Maoris were a martial people and, as they were very sensitive to supposed insults, there was much fighting among them. The losers were usually enslaved, often mutilated, or fattened and eaten.”4
Paul Moon identifies the existence of a terrifying paranoia in Maori communities. “They lived in ‘almost unbearable anxiety’”5 The drawing above shows Maori cooking another Maori alive, with Captain Cook watching on.
“Maori chief Hongi Hika would think nothing of drinking the blood of one of his prisoners who was still alive.6 In another account, “huge numbers [of conquered Maori] were spit-roasted over fires. Some Waikato warriors indulged in a feast of such gluttony that they died.”7
“Victims were killed with a blow to the temple. Afterwards, the heads were removed and throw to the dogs. Then the virile members [penis] was thrown to the women who ate the dainty morsel eagerly. The remainder of the body was then dismembered, washed, and cooked in a hangi.”8
The Maori tribe Tainui famously acquired corn seed by disemboweling a prisoner, removing the kernels in this stomach for seed. 9
“On September 5th, 1821, Ngapuhi took Mauinaina pa at Tamaki with great slaughter - 2000 men, women, and children being killed. Once can easily imagine the sheer terror of their child victims, no doubt tasty morsels for the cannibal feast which followed until the victors were driven off by the smell of decaying bodies.”10
They crucial question is this - why were Maori continually fighting and eating each other, lusting for slaves and power? Historian and lawyer Stuart Scott gives the answer succinctly and accurately.
“Maori were traditionally considered a savage murderous race devoted to the blood feud who loved rapine and killing for its own sake and, without a moment’s thought, regularly submitted their fellow humans to physical and mental terrors and cruelties which stagger the imagination.” 11
4 Ibid, p27
5 Moon, Paul. This Horrid Practice. p149.
6 Bruce Moon. New Zealand. The Fair Colony. 2nd Edition. Bruce Moon Publications. 2020. p16.
7 Ibid, 17.
8 Ibid, 36.
9 Submission on ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’s Histories in the New Zealand Curriculum. Tim Wikiriwhi. Hamilton.
10 Bruce Moon. New Zealand. The Fair Colony. 2nd Edition. Bruce Moon Publications. 2020. p78
11 Scott. Stuart C. The Travesty of The Treaty. Towards Anarchy. Caxton Press, 1995, 105
What he is describing is the essential Maori DNA.
So why did Maori want to sign the Treaty?
“The Maori world was falling apart. They sought a different way, a new culture. Such an alternative was at hand, presented by the British and the missionaries, a way of life with a rule of law and a religion calling for peace and coexistence rather than tribal conflict.
The calls for help to a greater power, to bring a better way to deal with conflict and a strong national authority came from many northern chiefs.
This process, consciously worked out by the Maori themselves, involved enormous changes to the Maori way of life and culture. These chiefs recognised that their society was dysfunctional.
The old mores no longer worked or provided a good life. The future looked grim.”12
Now here is the most interesting of all question. Why did Maori, whose DNA has been accurately described, come to the point in their history where they wanted an end to warring? What caused this change of mind? This change of heart?
It was through the coming of Christianity and the work of missionaries that this change came about.
What’s the lesson here?
The good Maori I know, the really upright fine Maori in New Zealand, have been thoroughly Westernised, and often thoroughly Christianised. This is just a fact. Assimilation is the only answer, not separatism. Separatism will lead Maori back to their pre-1840 lifestyle.
The more Maori go back into their roots, and their culture, and de-Westernise, and de-Christianise, the worse they become. They sink back into cess pit of their essential DNA. This describes the Treatyists perfectly.
So the first reason Maori wanted the Treaty? They wanted protection from the French.
The second reason? Their society was falling apart. It was dysfunctional. Maori were annihilating each other and they cried out to the British for help.
So what did Maori gain from the Treaty?
Historian Mike Butler (right) has written a great summary of the seven benefits Maori gained from the Treaty.
First, Maori achieved peace. They agreed to come under the British rule of law and to stop fighting each other.
Second, infanticide stopped. Prior to 1840, Maori would kill their female babies because they only wanted males, who could be raised as warriors for fighting.
Third, Maori women were big winners from the Treaty. Prior to 1840, they were slaves, doing all the manual
12
work for the rest of the Maori tribe. There was no tougher life on earth than being a Maori woman slave for Maori men. The life expectancy for a Maori woman in 1840 was between 20 and 30 years. In 2012, life expectancy for Maori women was 76.5. The picture above, shameful as it is, is an actual painting of Maori slave girl. Just look at her. It makes one feel like crying. There is tremendous sadness here.
Fourth, Maori slaves benefited from the Treaty. The Treaty made all Maori British subjects. As such, it was illegal to have slaves. So all Maori slaves were freed.
Fifth, the chiefs were big winners with the Treaty because their land was guaranteed to them. That is to say, the British guaranteed to protect whatever land they owned in 1840, and to stop another tribe from stealing it. Up until 1840, any tribe could steal another tribe’s land. Prior to 1840, might was right. After 1840, British protection of land kicked in.
Sixth, European settlers, whalers, seal hunters, and farmers, prior to 1840 had not been answerable to the rule of law. There was no law, no police, and no army. It was every man for himself. All this changed with the signing of the Treaty. One chief said at the Treaty debate on February 5th 1840, “Will you remedy the selling, the exchanging, the cheating, the lying, the stealing of the whites?”13
Seventh, British settlement brought creatures comforts. In effect, the British said to the Maori chiefs “We offer to protect you from the French and any other invaders. We’ll bring creature comforts and things which will make life easier and better for you like houses, new food types, new livestock types; iron and metal to replace wood and stone implements; clothing; horses and carts; candles etc. We’ll show you how to build roads and bridges; we’ll bring education to you and your children so you can read and write and do arithmetic, paper and pens; we’ll bring doctors, nurses, hospitals and medicine to help you when you are sick; we’ll preserve your language etc.”
Takeaways
Don’t believe for a second that the Treaty was bad for Maori. It was not. Quite the opposite in fact. The truth of the matter is that the chiefs asked for it.
If it was not for the Treaty, Maori as a race of people would likely not exist today.
As Dr Bruce Moon says “When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand, the Maoris, like all Polynesians, were a Stone Age People.” 14
A short 180 years later look what Maori, Stone Age People, havefirst world dentists, doctors, medicine, roads, bridges, planes, cars, electricity, houses, cell phones, computers, boats, outboards, fishing gear, food of every description, social welfare, etc. You name it, they have access to it. Most of it is free.
The Treaty was bad for Maori? Absolute rubbish.
Colonialism was bad for Maori? Absolute rubbish too. So why do the Maori elite keep saying these things, knowing full well they are not true?
13 Butler, Mike. The Treaty Basic Facts. Tross Publishing 2021. p.27
14 Moon, Bruce. Twisting The Treaty. A Tribal Grab For Wealth And Power. Tross Publishing. 2013. p 27
Answer? They are not ignorant, not knowing what they are talking about. The exact opposite is true.
It’s psychological warfare. It’s a deliberate well thought out strategy.
Maori want non Maori to feel guilty and ashamed.
Why is this important?
Because when people are feeling guilty and ashamed, they are weakened. And why is it important to have the population of New Zealand weakened?
Because people who are weakened lose their ability and resolve to fight.
And why is it important for Maori to have a population who have lost their resolve and ability to fight?
Maori want to bring the population to this point because then they can push on with their agenda to take over New Zealand without opposition. They want the population to be putty in their hands.
They want to take over New Zealand without opposition. By infusing us with guilt and shame, we become easy beats. This is what it’s about.
This video was funded by the government. It’s a classic example of what I am talking about here. I am going to write about this video in another blog.
How do we beat this? Know the facts, stick to them, and tell others about them. Join the resistance.
This is a war.
Let’s not mince words here. The Maori elite in New Zealand are oppressors.
It’s impossible to be neutral, and sit on the fence. We are either for the elite Maori cause/ agenda, or against it. We are either for saving New Zealand, or against saving New Zealand.
If you decide to sit on the fence, whether you realise it or not, you have succumbed to elite Maori. You have joined in with their cause.
They have beaten you. They have got you where they want you. You have succumbed to all their lies and propagranda. You are a defeated foe.
I urge you not to take your defeat lightly.
The greatest person who ever lived15, Jesus Christ, said this in Matthew 12:30 “He who is not with me is against
15 It does not matter whether you believe He was the greatest or not. Not believing in Him does not change the fact. The fact is, absolutely no one has influenced the world more than He has. If you know your history, you’ll know this to be true. Just read what he said about ‘sitting on the fence’. It’s interesting and very true.
me, and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad.”
I did a study once to find out exactly what this meant. The meaning was given by a very famous professor Dr William Barclay.
He said “In this one piercing sentence Jesus, lays down the impossibility of neutrality. In a war there are only two sides. If our presence does not strengthen one side, then our absence is weakening it. There is no halfway house.
If a nation is at war, then the neutral nation is an enemy by withholding the help it might have given. In all things in this world a man has to choose his side.
Abstention from choice, suspended action, is no way out, because the mere refusal to give one side assistance is in fact the giving of support to the other.”
How can you join in with the fight? How can you strengthen the side? There are seven things you can do.
First, tell people about the web site www.stopcogovernance.kiwi.
Second, have some business cards printed. Here is a template. Just email the template to a copy centre and they will print them and courier them to your home. Then commit to giving out a few each day.
Third, study. Study what’s going on. Study our history, so that when you are interacting with people you know what you are talking about. I have memorised the Treaty. It’s not very long. It’s such a good thing to do.
Fourth, finance this fight. Give.
Fifth, gather a group of people together in your area and plan an event where I can come and speak.
Sixth, where you see business ‘going Maori’, plastering their communications with Maori language, object. Write to them. Tell them you are European, and would like to be addressed in English. The Maorification of New Zealand businesses is part of the elite Maori strategy to take over.
Seven, write to MPs / local councilors / business leaders telling them about the web site www.stopcogovernance. kiwi and voice your strong objection to co-governance.