Testing the theories - The problems with Signing the Treaty

Today we made our own treaties in our groups. We then tried to get the whole class to sign the treaty we made.

Here are some of the issues we found:

• We only had about 5 minutes to write a treaty. This was not long enough to really think it through.
• While many people signed without reading the treaties(too friendly I think). They just trusted that the treaty to be fair.
• Some people did not understand what people wrote.
• Not all our class was present, so we could not get everyone to sign the Treaty.
• The Queen would not sign any of the Treaties because she did not agree to them. They were to politically correct!
• Not everyone would agree to and sign the different treaties.

These issues were similar to what Busby, Williams and Hobson faced when they were creating and trying to get Maori to sign the treaty.

• Limited amount of time to write the treaty
• Maori trusted the British to look after them
• Maori did not understand the English version and therefore could not see if there were any differences. A new Maori word was also used in the treaty that Hobson created to describe Soverignity that chiefs would not understand
• Not all the chiefs of New Zealand were present. The treaty was sent around New Zealand for other chiefs to sign. It is not known that all the chiefs of New Zealand signed the treaty.
• Not all chiefs signed the treaty because they did not think that they would benefit from it.