The Treaty of Waitangi - Te Tiriti o Waitangi 1840

Following a day of heated debate at the house of James Busby, the British Resident, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands on 6 February 1840 by Captain William Hobson, several English residents and approximately forty-five Maori chiefs. The influential chief Whaka Nene turned the debate in favour of the Treaty. The first Maori to sign was Hone Heke; three other chiefs placed their signature above his later that day. The document signed at Waitangi was then taken to various other Northland locations to obtain additional Maori signatures.

To extend Crown authority over parts of the North Island that had not yet been covered, and the South Island, a further seven copies of the Waitangi document were sent around the country for signing. The Church Missionary Society press at Paihia, near Waitangi, printed copies of the Treaty and one of these also was used to obtain further signatures.

Rescued from the fire that burnt the government offices in Official Bay, Auckland, in 1841, the treaty documents were held until 1865 in an iron safe in Auckland, and later Wellington, at the Colonial Secretary's office. The government printed facsimile copies of the Treaty documents in 1877 at which point they were put into storage.

The Treaty was lost sight of until 1911 when it was rediscovered, stored in the Wellington Government Buildings. It was then found to be damaged by water and rodents, particularly the two parchment sheets, namely the original Waitangi document and the HMS Herald sheet. Following restoration work by the Dominion Museum in 1913, the Treaty was stored in specially constructed metal containers in the strong room of the Department of Internal Affairs.

The first known public display of the Treaty of Waitangi was in 1940 at Waitangi, for the Centennial celebrations. From 1949 onwards the documents were loaned to and displayed by the Alexander Turnbull Library, then still part of the Department of Internal Affairs. In 1981 the Treaty was returned to National Archives - established in 1957 - to join other important constitutional documents. Finally, in 1990 the Constitution Room at the new National Archives headquarters provided the conditions suitable for the permanent display for the first time of modern New Zealand's founding documents.

Access to the Constitution Room is free.

Photo of treaty (178K)