The Remaining Maori of Aotearoa New Zealand
Robbed, Oppressed and Condemned to Double the Rates of Drug Addiction, Mental Illness, Suicide
1840
Maori owned 66,400,000 acres of land [Maori population stood at about 250,000]
1841
Land Claims Ordinance stated that lands not actually occupied or used by the Maori belonged to the Crown. This contradicted Article 2 of the Treaty
1844
Governor Fitzroy dropped the pre-emption clause in Article 2 of the Treaty and allowed private sales to take place.
1846
Governor Grey abolished the Protectorate Department, which had the responsibility of protecting Maori rights, and gave the New Zealand Company the exclusive right of pre-emption.
1852
Maori ownership of land reduced to 34,000,000 acres.
In the 12 years since 1840 almost half of the Maori owned land had been lost.
1852
Constitution Act:
Saw the establishment of Provincial Government. Only males over 21 who had individual title to property of a certain value were entitled to vote. Very few Maori males were able to do so.
1859
Te Ati Awa Chief Teira sold the Governor land at Waiata without seeking the agreement of the other chiefs who had an interest in the land, especially the Senior Chief Wiremu Kingi. This was a breach of the Treaty’s land guarantee.
1860
Maori Owned Land reduced to 21,4000,000 acres
1861
[The Bank of New South Wales, now Westpac Banking Corporation, opened 7 branches in New Zealand. ]
1862
Native Lands Act:
Designed to break down Maori communal ownership of land. A land court was set up to individualise title. An ammendment to the act meant that Maori owners could sell to anyone. This breached the pre-emption clause in Article 2.
1863
Governor Grey invades the Waikato region.
Suppression of Rebellion Act:
No right to trial before imprisonment. Its intention was to punish “certain aboriginal tribes of the colony” for rebelling against the Crown.
New Zealand Settlement Act:
Over three million acres of Maori land was confiscated to pay for the war.
1864
Native Reserves Act:
All remaining land reserved for Maori use was put under settler control.
1865
Native Land Court
Designed to determine ownership. Maori owners had to spend many months in town waiting to have their cases heard. If they did not show up they lost the right to the land. This caused many of them to build up huge debts and they had to sell a lot of their land to pay for them. Maori owners had to pay for any surveying work that had to be done. Many Maori owners sold land rather than go through the humiliating experience of the Land Court sitting.
1866
Between 1865 and 1875, 10 million acres of land was lost by Maori
Oyster Fisheries Act:
Prevented Maori from fishing commercially. Maori commercial fishing enterprises at the time went broke and they had to sell land to meet their debts.
1867
Maori Representation Act:
Four Maori seats in Parliament erstablished. A response to Pakeha fear that Maori who by now had a majority under the property qualification clause of the 1852 Constitution Act in a number of electorates could gain a majority in Government.
1867
The Native Schools Act:
Was passed extending the parameters of the 1858 Act. These schools would assist in the process of assimilation.
1869
A new Maori version of the Treaty was requested by the Government. “Kawanatanga” in Article 1 is replaced by “nga mana Katoa o te Rangatiratanga”.
1871
A Government stipulation that instruction in Native Schools had to be in English.
1877
The Treaty is declared a nullity by Judge Prendergast in the Bishop of Wellington v Wi Parata case. Legislation was introduced to allow direct purchase of Maori land. This was another breach of Article 2,
1879
An amendment by Grey of the Native Land Act made it easier for small farmers to get Maori land. The Government sabotaged the Commission that was set up to investigate land confiscation in Taranaki.
1879
Peace Preservation Bill:
One year’s hard labour for Maori people who refused to leave their abodes.
1880
Maori Prisoners’ Act:
200 Maori arrested in Taranaki for preventing the surveying of confiscated land. Kept in prison for an indefinite period without trial.
1880
West Coast Settlement Act:
Any Maori in Taranaki could be arrested without a warrant and jailed for two years with hard labour if they built anything or in any way hindered the surveying or property.
1881
Native Reserves Act:
The control of Maori reserves is taken over by the Public Trustee.
1881
2500 troops invade Parihaka and Te Whiti the prophet is arrested.
1886
Native Lands Administration Act:
Rejected the traditional right of communal ownership. Maori land was given over to small groups of trustees who had the right under this act to sell it.
1886
Te Whiti was re-arrested (under the West Coast Preservation Act of 1881) without warrant, charge or trial and jailed for three months.
1887
Native Land Act:
Large scale direct purchase of Maori land. Bastion Point, Auckland appropriated for defence purposes.
1891
Maori Land stood at 11,079,486 Acres [By the 1890s the Maori population had been decimated by the British settlers. In less than 50 years the Maori population was reduced from about 250,000 to less than 42,000.]
1892
The Native Department was abolished.
1893
Native Land Purchase and Acquisition Act:
Designed to speed up the purchase of Maori Land.
1894
Advances to Settlers Act:
Low interest loans made available to white settlers to buy land from the Government.
Native Land Court Act:
Names on the Certificate of Title were deemed trustees or beneficial owners.
Validation of Invalid Land Sales Act:
Any Pakeha misdealings concerning Maori land were legitimised.
1894
Maori Land Settlement Act:
Maori land was put under the control of Land Councils. There was no Maori representation. The settler population had increased and so had their desire for land.
1897
92 Maori in Taranaki were arrested for ploughing land in protest of Public Trustee control of their lands.
1903
An act re-affirms Judge Prendergast’s 1877 ruling that the Treaty is a nullity.
1905
The abolition of Native Councils (they had slowed down the Government’s land purchases).
1905-8
There were amendments to the Native Land Act which forced further sales of Maori land.
1908
Tohunga Suppression Act:
Penalties were imposed on tohunga (experts in Maori medicine and Maori spirituality).
1909
Native Land Act:**
Maori could no longer use the whangai system for adopting children. The Act was to prevent the adoption by Maori of Pakeha children.
1911
Maori land now amounted to 7,137,205 acres
1918
Maori servicemen who returned after WWI were not eligible for the benefits of the Rehabilitation Scheme. The scheme was only available to Pakeha servicemen.
1920
Maori land reduced to 4,787,686 acres
1923
Wiremu Tahopotiki Ratana was snubbed when he took Treaty grievances to King George.
1932
Ratana M.I.’s present petition with 30,000 signatures calling for ratification of the Treaty. It was ignored. Maori received half the unemployment benefit given to the Pakeha. A single Maori received 7s 6d and a Pakeha 15s.
1939
Maori land reduced to 4,028,903 acres.
1953
Maori Affairs Act:
If Maori land was not occupied or being used then it was declared “waste land” and taken by the Government.
1953
Town and Country Planning Act:
Prevented Maori from building on their land. This forced many Maori to move from rural areas to the cities.
1960
The Hunn Report:
Jack Hunn, a top-ranking civil servant, recommended a stepping up of the assimilation process.
1967
Maori Affairs Amendment Act:
Maori trustee had the right to ask individuals to sell their interest to the Government. Land owned by fewer than four Maori people had to be put under one title.
1967
Rating Act:
Maori freehold land subject to rates.
1975
Maori land reduced to 3,000,000 acres
1986
The Crown created a property right with the introduction of a fisheries quota system. A breach of Article 2.
1990
Maori Fisheries Act:
Re-definition of an important part of Article 2, which guarantees Maori “full exclusive possession of the Lands and Estates, Forest, Fisheries”. By 31st October 1992 Maori are granted 10% of the fishing quota. The Government has re-defined full as 10%. A further breach of the Treaty agreement.
**Correction: replaces 1909 Native Health Act , the original incorrect citation.
Sourced from: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~sai/Tr_violn.html
Comments:
A Call to World Citizens, Ethical Investors and New Zealanders with a Social Conscience to Boycott Westpac NZ
Maori owned 66,400,000 acres of land in 1840. Maori population stood at about 250,000. Two generations later, by 1891, the Maori Land was reduced to one sixth of the original holding (11,079,486 Acres) and so was Maori population, decimated by Pakeha (white Europeans) to 42,000.
The Bank of New South Wales, later Westpac Banking Corporation, opened 7 branches in New Zealand in 1861, which facilitated and was enormously enriched by the theft of Maori land, gold and all other resources. Westpac is now New Zealand’s largest bank, with 30,000 shareholders. Apply Pareto’s Principle, the 80/20 rule, and the number of major shareholders who own more than 80 percent of the wealth in NZ falls below 6,000. [In practice the number is probably much smaller.]
Surely such grand larceny of unimaginable proportions cannot and must not be allowed to stand. The flow of wealth must be reversed, and Maori grievances must be redressed. But how do you compensate a People for the pillage, rape and murder of nearly one quarter of a million of their nation? How would you determine the value of a single human life? What compensation could you possibly offer to a People who have been victimized and subjected to more than one and a half century of murder, repression, injustice and dispossession?
Nothing can fully compensate for the loss of a loved one, let alone a quarter of a million loved ones. You can never undo the atrocities of the militarized foreign aggressors perpetrated against Maori, or world’s other indigenous Peoples. However, there are measures that can and must be taken to redress at least some of their grievances.
MSRB is launching a campaign calling on world citizens, ethical investors, foreign and domestic, and New Zealanders with a social conscience to boycott Westpac Banking Corporation until such time the bank and their shareholders have compensated Maori and other deprived New Zealanders as follows:
1. Return to Maori the 66,400,000 acres of land that they possessed in 1840.
2. Transfer to Maori as a means of reparation forty percent (40%) of the money and all other assets held by Westpac New Zealand and their major shareholders.
3. Create a substantial fund comprising of at least forty percent (40%) of the money and all other assets held by Westpac Banking Corporation and their major shareholders to help alleviate the widespread suffering of the deprived New Zealand children [see notes below] and their families, which is created by the minority greed and predatory banking practices.
4. STOP predatory banking practices, aided by utterly corrupt government and judiciary.
Concerned individuals and organizations that wish to contribute further to the campaign ‘A Call To Boycott Westpac New Zealand ‘ should contact MSRB Campaign Team.
Sign Petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/679477073
The Management School of Restorative Business (MSRB) unequivocally condemns Westpac Banking Corporation and the utterly corrupt establishment, government and the judiciary in NZ for their continued crimes against humanity.
Notes:
1. ‘Poverty Measurement Project (1995), conducted by reputable academics and researchers, found that 32.6 percent of children [and by extension their families] in New Zealand live below a poverty threshold of 60 percent of the median disposable income.’
2. ‘The incidence of poverty is more than two and a half times greater among Maori,’ however, ‘than it is among Pakeha [European] families.’
www.crin.org/docs/resources/ treaties/crc.14/NZ_Long_NGO_Report.pdf
3. Today the establishment uses different methods to ‘solve’ the ‘Maori Problem’: ‘The languishing of Maori at the bottom of the heap‘ makes them ‘twice as likely to develop drug addiction and to suffer higher rates of mental illness‘[a] and consequently twice as likely to commit suicide.[b] How can New Zealanders hold their ‘heads up as a progressive democratic society in the face of these [sickening] statistics‘?
a. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10411772
b. http://www.nzma.org.nz/journal/116-1175/460/
PRO 