Hone Heke - The Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi

There are conflicting reports of when Heke signed the Treaty of Waitangi. It may have been with the other chiefs on 6 February 1840, but the treaty was soon found to be not to his liking. Among other things, Heke objected to the relocation of the capital to Auckland; moreover the Governor in Council impose a custom tariff on staple articles of trade that resulted in a dramatic fall in the number of whaling ships that visited Kororareka (over 20 whaling ships could be in the bay at any time); a reduction in the number of visiting ships caused a serious loss of revenue to the Ngāpuhi. Heke and his cousin Titore also collected and divided a levy of £5 on each ship entering the Bay. Pomare's grievance was that he could no longer collected payment from American whaling and sealing ships that called at Otuihu across from Opua.

The British representative became concerned at Heke and the Ngāpuhi chief Pomare flying of the American Ensign. Heke and Pomare had listened to Captain William Mayhew, the Acting-Consul for the United States since 1840, and other Americans talk about the successful revolt of the American colonies against England over the issue of taxation. Heke obtained an American ensign from Henry Green Smith, a storekeeper at Wahapu who had succeeded Mayhew as Acting-Consul. After the flagstaff was cut down for a second time the Stars and Strips flew from the carved sternpost of Heke's war-canoe. Letters from William Williams, recorded talks he had with Heke, and refer to American traders attempting to undermine the British both before and especially after the signing of the treaty. The first American Consul William Mayhew was probably pressured into leaving New Zealand, but was replaced by two unofficial Consuls, Green-Smith and Waetford. They continued in anti-British activities, selling muskets and powder to the disaffected Maori. Waetford was later convicted and imprisoned for gunrunning, but Green-Smith successfully escaped New Zealand before the Crown could arrest him.

Bishop Pompallier, who led the Catholic missionaries, had advised several of the leading catholic chiefs such as Rewa and Te Kemara to be very wary in signing the treaty so it is not surprising that they had spoken out against the treaty. William Colenso, the CMS missionary printer, in his record of the events of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi commented that “fter some little time Te Kemara came towards the table and affixed his sign to the parchment, stating that the Roman Catholic bishop (who had left the meeting before any of the chiefs had signed) had told him "not to write on the paper, for if he did he would be made a slave."

There were other matters of items of dissatisfaction among the Ngāpuhi. One item was the shifting of the capital of the new colony from Okiato to Auckland. Auckland had experienced a significant economic boom with the discovery of copper at Kawau island. In 1844/45 the copper was worth 7000 pounds, about a third of Auckland's total exports for that period. This resulted in a loss of revenue for the people of the Bay of Islands. Furthermore, the imposition of government customs duties, the temporary banning of the felling of kauri trees, and the government control over the sale of land all contributed to an economic depression for the northern Māori. Furthermore, the British considered the authority of the chiefs to be subservient to that of the Crown as the governor asserted the rule of law, the presence of government officials and troops had resulted in an end to the free wheeling lawless situation that had prevailed in the north since the 1820s.