Story: Te Tiriti o Waitangi – the Treaty of Waitangi

This G. F. Angas portrait of the senior Waikato rangatira Te Wherowhero (later to become the first Māori king) was published in 1847. After the 1845–46 war in the Bay of Islands, British colonial officials proposed to limit Māori land ownership rights. Māori and many non-Māori saw this as a breach of te Tiriti o Waitangi (the Treaty of Waitangi). In 1847 Te Wherowhero wrote to Queen Victoria asking her to confirm that the treaty would be upheld. Britain’s Colonial Secretary Earl Grey replied on her behalf to Governor George Grey, insisting that ‘her Majesty has always directed that the Treaty should be most scrupulously and religiously observed.’ The texts of both letters appear below.