In yesterday’s editorial you cite a group of people who have, to use your words, “a slightly warped view of the Treaty”. After the recent hui at Ngaruawahia, I asked myself what I thought the “principles of the Treaty” were and the answer was, I don’t really know.
I downloaded the government’s paper from www.waitangitribunal.govt.nz/treaty-of-waitangi/principles-of-the-treaty/. I also downloaded Act’s paper on these matters. I see a golden opportunity for your paper to mount an educational programme for the “great unwashed”.
Among my admittedly aged and confined group of acquaintances, a similar lack of knowledge on Treaty principles was apparent on inquiry. I accept that as a citizen I should know what the principles are, but the fact is I do not. The everyday problems of life tend to override the consideration of such weighty matters.
One speaker at the recent hui is reported as saying the only Treaty that mattered was the Maori version, and Maori alone would decide what the principles were. That is not a direct quote, but my summation. That is, of course, that person’s opinion which they are entitled to.
I think a lot of confrontation could be avoided if more information was made available, stripped of long convoluted phrases and the seemingly mandatory bureaucratic jargon, so beloved of official papers.
