Re: Look back to forebears, February 17 letter.
I can’t help but wonder, Mr Best, what your problem is. Is it a stupa on Kaiti Hill, or is it that it is Buddhists who want to build it? And why bring the Christian missionary William Williams into this?
The answer to your question, Mr Best, is in the book written by Rt. Rev. Jean Baptiste Pompallier, the first vicar apostolic of Western Oceania. This book — Early History of the Catholic Church in Oceania — was written on Bishop Pompallier’s return to France on his retirement, from his diary notes.
You will find that Bishop Pompallier was instrumental in getting the wording changed for the Treaty. The following is a paragraph from the above book:
“Before the last meeting broke up and it became a question of signing the Treaty, I broke my silence. I addressed Captain Hobson, begging him to make known to all the people the principles of European civilisation which obtain in Great Britain, and which would guarantee free and equal protection to the Catholic as to every other religion in New Zealand. My demand was immediately acceded to by Captain Hobson, who made a formal notification of it to all the assembled people . . .”
