Henry Williams (missionary) - Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

Henry Williams played an important role in the translation of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840). In August 1839 Captain William Hobson was given instructions by the Colonial Office to take the constitutional steps needed to establish a British colony in New Zealand. Hobson was sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor in Sydney on 14 January, finally arriving in the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840. The Colonial Office did not provide Hobson was draft treaty so that he was forced to write his own treaty with the help of his secretary, James Freeman, and British Resident James Busby. The entire treaty was prepared in four days. Realising that a treaty in English could be neither understood, debated or agreed to by Māori, Hobson instructed Henry Williams, who worked with his son Edward, who was more proficient in Te Reo, to translate the document into Māori and this was done overnight on 4 February. At this time William Williams, who was also proficient in Te Reo, was in Poverty Bay.

On 5 February 1840 the original English version of the treaty and its translation into Māori were put before a gathering of northern chiefs inside a large marquee on the lawn in front of Busby's house at Waitangi. Hobson read the treaty aloud in English and Williams read his Māori version. In his translation he used a dialect known as "Missionary Māori", which was not traditional Māori, but had been made up by the missionaries. An example of this in the Treaty is kawanatanga, a cognate word which Williams is believed to have transplanted from English. It appeared in the Māori language for the first time in the Treaty and hence, some argue, was an inappropriate choice. There is considerable debate about what would have been a more appropriate term. Some scholars argue that mana (prestige, authority) would have more accurately conveyed the transfer of sovereignty; although others argue that mana cannot be given away and is not the same thing as sovereignty.

Hone Heke signed the Treaty of Waitangi although there is uncertainty as to whether he signed it on 6 May 1840 or only signed at a later date after being persuaded to sign by other Māori. In any event he was later to cut down the flagstaff on Flagstaff Hill Kororareka (nowadays Russell) to express his dissatisfaction with how the representatives of Crown subsequently treated the authority of the chiefs as being subservient to that of the Crown.

Henry Williams was also involved in explaining the Treaty to Māori leaders, firstly at the meetings with William Hobson at Waitangi, but later also when he travelled to many places to persuade Māori chiefs to sign the Treaty. His involvement in these debates brought him "into the increasingly uncomfortable role of mediating between two races".