Much is made by the Maori elite about so called ‘land confiscations’ to justify Treaty of Waitangi claims and payouts. What is the truth of the matter?
When I went onto government administered ‘history’ web sites, I was gob smacked. These sites are awash with lies and propaganda.
Of course, secondary school students / teachers / and the general public innocently go to these sites to seek information to complete their assignments or for general interest.
Little do they / would they know that what they reading is outright lies, deliberately designed to deceive.
You can read my blog here.
I understood in the past Maori had no concept of land ownership.
Even if they did where was the ownership of even 1M2 registered
What your say is true in the early contact period i.e. pre – 1820. Then suddenly they realised they could exchange land for “things” the Europeans had and land became valuable. Before then, land was worthless.
I saw your latest speech re the treaty & would like to see you as our next prime minister, that has wisdom & clout to deal will our future.
Thank you for your confidence, I would love the job.
Thanks Julian, for casting some sunlight on yet more history re-writing, to support a hard done by, evil colonist narrative.
Fundamentally there was of course no concept of land “ownership” in any legal sense. It was just territory occupied by different tribes over time, as one tribe usurped another. Particularly so for a hunter/gatherer culture that didn’t cultivate or add much value to the land other than where there were dwellings.
So presumably what was sold was largely the peaceful vacation of an area to enable legal claims to be staked without violence.
It would be interesting to research the mechanisms by means of which occupied land eventually passed into legal ownership by Maori. How it was staked, surveyed etc. No doubt much of the purchased and so called “stolen” land wasn’t owned in any legal sense.
As I understand it, post 1840, it was one of the great challenges of the new British government to determine which tribe ‘owned’ which land. As you can imagine, there were huge squabbles and much arguing. Once ownership was finally established and agreed upon, titles were issued and boundaries marked out. I read one account of two chiefs having a punch up in the court room!
There is a huge amount of our true history on the One New Zealand Foundation site. Ross Baker has done enormous research from NZ, NSW, American Archives as well as Parliamentary Papers from Britain. He has put out a number of booklets on the subject. Unfortunately NZ has buried much of their information but there are many sales documents in NSW Archives relating to the sale of land and other information.
“Awash with lies and propaganda “ sums it up well Julian. Property transactions between Maori and settlers , et al , back in the 1840s onward , were agreed at what constituted “fair value” at that time.. To look to reopen those settled transactions and look to reassess them in terms of today’s values / value system is known as ““presentism” . It is both morally and legally indefensible. . It is usually linked to claims of past victimisation , supported by disinformation , misinformation , invented information and other lies. — all of course anathema to our “ straight as an arrow, squeaky clean Prime Minister. “, who is adamantly opposed to such methods —- even though she has been known to use them herself .
In those days it was not unknown , of course, for some Maori to sell the same piece of land consecutively to 3 or 4 different buyers , none of who knew the land had already been sold to someone else, let alone 3 “someone else’s. “
Hugh Perrett
Not only was the land sold to two or three buyers in 1830, but then the Maori owner complained to the government that he didn’t really sell it, so it was awarded back to him in 1850. He didn’t give the money back to the 3 buyers who paid him for it in 1830. Then he sold it again later to someone else in 1885, at a fair price, then complained to the government in 1930 that the price was not fair in 1885 , and was awarded the 1930 value, made valuable by the settlers who had worked the land and fenced it between 1885 and 1930! He sold it again in 1960, only to claim it back in 1985 through the Waitangi Tribunal who paid him out at the 1985 valuation. What a cash cow!
Even worse and more devious than I understood it to be. But that is exactly what is going on today with todays activist-radicals.
“Presentism” is alive and well.
Hugh P