Prime Minister John Key says Sir Douglas Graham might have given up his knighthood had the Government not told him he didn't have to.

The possibility of a Parnell park being traded as prime waterfront real estate in a Treaty of Waitangi claim settlement has prompted an outcry from groups.

A new political party which wants to strip Maori of race-based privileges has made mass leaflet drops in Tauranga, Napier, Hastings and Orewa.

A Treaty settlement bill that passed its first reading will hand 15 volcanic cones and four small islands in Auckland back to local Maori.

Editorial: The whole country ought to be celebrating the historic settlement with Tuhoe signed at Parliament last week.

Stripping honours for reasons other than traditional crimes, is a relatively new phenomenon sparked by the global financial crisis, writes Claire Trevett.

The final South Island treaty claim has been settled today with the signing of a deed of settlement between the Crown and Ngati Tama ki Te Tau Ihu.

My jovial slip of the tongue about remaining the co-leader "until I die" was not what I intended, writes Dr Pita Sharples.

One of New Zealand history's darkest, most profound grievances is close to resolution after Tuhoe and the Crown completed negotiations on an unlikely settlement worth $170 million.

The Crown and Tuhoe marked another step in settling the iwi's Treaty of Waitangi grievances today.

A Waitangi elder has used the opening of a historic Waitangi Tribunal hearing to call on the Government to buy back private land in the Bay of Islands so it can be returned to hapu.

John Key's Government has cleared the final hurdle for its flagship asset sales policy and is set to press the go button on the sale of Mighty River shares on Monday.

The Supreme Court yesterday heard final submissions on a second case that could affect the Government's planned partial sale of Mighty River Power.

As you'll know by breathless media reports, the old battle-axe Titewhai Harawira took the country to the brink of disaster just as the Prime Minister and other dignitaries were about to arrive at the lower Waitangi marae.

On the way to Waitangi we stopped at a coffee bar in Whangarei. The attendant said he had grown up in the Bay of Islands but wouldn't go where we were going.

A group of immigrants chose Waitangi Day to become New Zealand citizens. Reporters Vaimoana Tapaleao and Kieran Campbell met some of the new New Zealanders.

John Key and David Shearer have both voiced support for a four-year parliamentary term - but the change will require public buy-in to happen.

Nations nearly always find their pride in their origins - a migration, a revolution, a war of independence. New Zealand, possibly uniquely in the world, can find it in a treaty. A treaty of equals.

Waitangi Day remains an annual reminder of the 173-year Crown-Maori relationship - a relationship that is still very much a live subject in the New Zealand Courts.