The Road To The Treaty 🛣️

 Use these important dates/events that led to the signing of the Treaty to create a history road.

Include a brief description of each event.

1833

On the 5th of May, James Busby arrives in the Bay of Islands. Then in the following year 1834 Busby got northern chiefs to vote for their own flag. The intention was that a flag would provide a means for encouraging Maori to act collectively, and the fledgling colony needed its own flag for its trading ships to be legitimately operating in the Pacific. 

1835

Frenchman Baron Charles de Thierry claimed to have purchased 40,000 acres in the Hokianga. He planned to establish a ‘sovereign and independent state’. The French plan led Busgby to draw up a Declaration of Independence in 1835. 

1837

In December 1837 the British government decided in principle to intervene in New Zealand to ensure that colonisation was regulated and that land transactions that defrauded Māori were stopped. The government had initially tried to avoid assuming responsibility. Instead, it had attempted to influence the interaction of Māori and British settlers through the missionaries and by sending British Resident James Busby to work with chiefs. In mid-1839 the British government decided to annex at least part of New Zealand to New South Wales.

1839

The British government appointed William Hobson as consul to New Zealand in 1839. Hobson was instructed to obtain sovereignty over all or part of New Zealand with the consent of a sufficient number of chiefs. New Zealand would come under the authority of George Gipps, the governor of New South Wales, and Hobson would become Gipps’ lieutenant-governor. Land-buying agents continued swarming over New Zealand in anticipation of purchases.

1840 

Governor Gipps prohibited further private land purchases from Māori, and no existing claims were to be recognised until they had been investigated by the authorities. William Hobson repeated the proclamation at the Bay of Islands on 30 January 1840. 

 1840

The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840. The previous day a draft of the Treaty in English and Māori was discussed before about 500 Māori and 200 Pākehā. Many Māori were suspicious of what was intended, but Tāmati Wāka Nene among others helped sway the chiefs towards acceptance. The meeting reassembled on 6 February; the text was read again, and signing commenced. About 40 chiefs signed on the first day; by September 1840 another 500 chiefs around the country had signed. Almost all of the chiefs signed copies of the Māori text of the Treaty. On 21 May William Hobson proclaimed sovereignty over all of New Zealand: over the North Island on the basis of cession through the Treaty of Waitangi and over the southern islands by right of discovery. Māori agreement to the terms of the Treaty was still being sought. Hobson may have wanted to declare the Crown’s authority over the whole country because he had learned of possible moves by the New Zealand Company to set up its own administration around Cook Strait. His deputy, Major Thomas Bunbury, also made proclamations of sovereignty over Stewart Island on 5 June by right of discovery (he claimed that no Māori could be found there to sign the Treaty),and over the South Island on 17 June by virtue of cession.