At Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, Captain William Hobson and Māori rangatira signed a treaty establishing British sovereignty while promising Māori rights over their land. Discrepancies between the English and Māori texts sowed disputes that persist today, but the treaty remains New Zealand's founding constitutional document, commemorated annually as Waitangi Day.
The document was drafted in haste overnight by Hobson's secretary and missionary Henry Williams, who translated it into Māori in a single evening. The Māori version, Te Tiriti, promised chiefs 'tino rangatiratanga' (full authority) over their lands and possessions, while the English version spoke of ceding 'sovereignty' — a gap in meaning that would fuel generations of grievance and litigation.
Over 500 Māori chiefs eventually signed copies of the treaty as it was carried around the country, though some, including powerful Waikato and Taranaki leaders, refused. Within decades, land confiscations and the New Zealand Wars exposed how differently the two peoples understood what had been agreed.
Today February 6 is a public holiday in New Zealand, marked by both celebration and protest at the treaty grounds, a living reminder that founding documents can be read in profoundly different ways by the parties who sign them.
Key people: William Hobson, Henry Williams