WAVING NZ GOODBYE

There could have been an even more defining moment in the

1841 separation of New Zealand from New South Wales than the one described in AG 145.

Before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, the governor of NSW, George Gipps, invited 10 M-aori chiefs living in Sydney to a garden party at Government House – the old one in Bridge Street where the Museum of Sydney now stands.

His intention was to get them to sign a treaty he had drawn up. However, they were advised not to sign by Sydney merchant John Jones, with whom they were staying and who had interests in vast lands in the South Island.

If signed, Gipps’s treaty would have taken precedence over the Treaty of Waitangi. It had no clause guaranteeing the M-aoris possession of their lands, and they would not be able to sell any land other than to the Queen, two aspects that appear in the Treaty of Waitangi and which I understand still apply today.

My reference for this is in Tasman Relations: New Zealand and Australia, 1788–1988 (Auckland University Press, 1987).

The whole story is a chapter in my book, The Flag’s Up (Halstead Press, 2017).