Treaty Of Waitangi

Before the treaty was signed the European and Maori people were enemies amongst each other. In order to stop the chaos, Queen Victoria decided to create a civil government. But in order to do that, a treaty was needed to be signed. So William Hobson and James Busby gathered the European and Maori chiefs together to sign the treaty.

On the 6th of February,1840, the signing of the treaty was at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. Approximately 40 chiefs signed the treaty. Over the months, the Missionaries, traders and officials took the treaty all over New Zealand and had other chiefs sign it. By the end of the year 500 other chiefs signed the treaty including 13 women.
The way they signed the treaty was to put their thumb print on the treaty. Hone Heke, was the first Maori to sign the treaty. Henry Williams was the man who translated the English treaty to the Maori version. After the signing of the treaty, peace at last was restored.

There were 3 P’s that were involved in the signing of the treaty. Those 3 P’s are still important to our school. They are Participation, Partnership and Protection. The first P, Participation, means to Participate and join in. In our school we are generous and let others participate in our games and groups. The 2nd P, Partnership means to Co-operate and Join in. At our school we have a korero which is “Champions Listen To The Coach”. What that means is to listen to our teachers and mentors so we can work together and inspire each other to share and Co-Operate. Finally the 3rd P, which is protection. We need to protect our younger kids and be role models to our new entrance students so they know what to do.