A shared authority
David Seymour speaks the most dog-whistling race-baiting that our inclusive, bicultural democracy has witnessed since 2004. Seymour says the last 40 years' combination of the Waitangi Tribunal, the courts, and successive Labour and
National governments have quietly but progressively changed the definition of the Treaty's meaning. Chris Finlayson, John Key's Treaty Relations minister, rightly slams Seymour's call.
Reputable, professional historians, such as James Belich and Michael King, highlight that these institutions accurately returned Treaty interpretation to that which knowledgeable, insightful, te reo speaking, early colonial witnesses, like Surveyor General Mathews, Aborigines Protector Clarke, Wesleyan Chairman Hobbs, and Chief Justice Martin, 180 years ago, understood. This is what the official Māori Treaty text actually promoted, and Governor Hobson verbally promised.
Chiefs would retain their "full chiefship" over their own tribes and resources, in a partnership relationship with the Crown.
If Seymour would read Claudia Orange's The Treaty of Waitangi, pp.46, 89, and Paul Moon's The Path to the Treaty, p.131, both conclude chiefs would have heard the Treaty as bringing a Tonga-like "protectorate", or a form of Crown-in-right "shared authority" as Westminster has long devolved to Scotland's, Wales' and Northern Ireland's peoples.
Co-governance, today, best honours these Treaty promises.
Gary A. Clover, Nelson.
Firm response
There is absolutely no reason for Joe Biden to tone down his call for Putin to leave office. Would Winston Churchill have been frightened to speak of Hitler the way Joe Biden spoke of Putin? The Western world needs to get real.
Don't shoot the messenger who accurately calls for an ultimate barrier to Putin's war crimes.
By contrast, it would seem that President Macron is giving Putin the diplomatic version of a French kiss. He has achieved nothing with his diplomacy.
Putin the autocrat and sociopath is not interested. Putin's spokesman says that the Russian people choose their president. That should be past tense because Putin has transitioned from being elected for a presidential term to a lifetime term of unbridled power. This has been backed up by the imprisonment of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny as a non-Novichok version of elimination.
Being frightened to speak out, let alone take action with a no-fly zone, has emboldened Putin and his dissembling henchmen.
Keep up the pressure and take bold action when it is needed.
Hugh Webb, Huntington.
Stoking the fire
It's a shame the US President Joe Biden allowed his emotions to surface after his meeting with those escaping from the horrors of the Ukraine war. It's a normal response after listening to tears and heartbreak but it was a dangerous response, especially when the world faces a bedlamite such as Putin.
Perhaps Biden should look at how language can be used successfully during a critical confrontation, especially those from WWII's leader Winston Churchill, who successfully manipulated language to build confidence in the public and his troops abroad.
This was especially effective when war was determined by another indecent and narcissistic controller, a behaviour that appeals to so many in the world today and one Putin knows well.
Churchill always seemed self-assured. He used his emotional speeches for public performances, and gained support, allowing what needed to be done. But, along with some unexpected changes that took place, his words worked. Biden's will not.
Changing an old proverb to "don't poke the fire when the burning needs dousing" makes a lot of sense today.
Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead.
Rockets ready
Correspondent Johann Nordberg (NZ Herald, March 28) asks - after offering many words supporting Ukraine's rights - now that war with Russia has broken out, when is the US going to provide air support and Nato provide troops to support Ukraine?
The answer is quite simple. Ukraine will not get such support because Nato and the US fear that Putin really means what he says when he has stated that such action would provoke a nuclear war with Russia, which the Nato countries, including mainland USA, could not survive.
However Russia, because of its superior missile and rocket technology, may well survive such a war. Therefore the risk is too great.
David Mairs, Glendowie.
Way blocked
With our borders opening to the world in October at the present time, it is with dismay that my overseas visitors currently cannot even apply for a New Zealand visa for October 2022.
How can you plan travel when the visa is a critical element. Considering our tourist sector is crying out for visitor income, this makes no sense.
The time lag to get the visa again makes it even more advantageous to be able to apply now.
Brian Gamble, Glenfield.