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Article: Who owns New Zealand? (treaty of Waitangi)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- September 10, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ONE solemn summer afternoon in 1840, the chiefs of New Zealand's Maori tribes donned traditional dogskin cloaks and paddled to Waitangi to sign a treaty with the British. The queen from the far side of the globe made the Maoris her subjects, promised to protect them and guaranteed their ownership of tribal lands, forests, fisheries and other treasures. In exchange, she would govern.
The British made and forgot many such treaties; but Maoris remember the treaty of Waitangi. They fought fiercely to protect their land from waves of British settlers in the 1860s. They lost; but ever since, they have sought at least symbolic restitution. They have lately forced the ...