United Tribes of New Zealand

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The Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand, New Zealand's first flag, selected in 1834

The United Tribes of New Zealand was a loose confederation of Māori tribes based in the north of the North Island. The confederation was convened in 1834 by James Busby.

Busby was sent to New Zealand in 1833 by the Colonial Office to serve as the official British Resident, and was anxious to set up a framework for trade between Māori and Europeans, the Māori chiefs of northern part of the North Island agreed to meet with him in March 1834. Rumors began spreading that Baron Charles de Thierry, a French landowner, was going to set up an independent state at Hokianga in order to bring in the French. Discussions were initiated on the creation of a new federal state in New Zealand, and the United Tribes declared their new independence on 28 October 1835 with the signing of the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand.^[1] Busby's efforts were entirely too successful — as the islands settled down, the British began to consider an outright annexation. In February 1840, a number of chiefs of the United Tribes convened at Waitangi to sign the Treaty of Waitangi.^{[citation needed]}

In 2007, Sydney-based Māori academic Brent Kerehona questioned whether the Ngā Puhi chief Moka 'Kainga-mataa' did in fact sign the treaty, as has been claimed by historians and academics of the past. Moka was an original signatory to the Declaration of Independence on 28 October 1835, the sole Maori signatory to Hobson's Proclamations on 30 January 1840 (only seven days prior to the Treaty signing) and voiced his concerns about the Treaty's effects whilst he was at the Treaty meeting on 5 February 1840. Kerehona infers that despite his name appearing on the Treaty of Waitangi, there is no accompanying mark or signature; and that the conversation on 5 February, between Moka, the Reverend Charles Baker and Captain William Hobson, recorded by William Colenso (1890), should also be considered.

[edit] See also

• Independence of New Zealand
• Flag of New Zealand
• List of Māori iwi

[edit] References

• Colenso, W. (1890). The Authentic and Genuine History of the Treaty of Waitangi. Wellington. p. 19.