On 8 April 1840 the Tūranga missionary William Williams received a copy of the treaty from his older brother Henry Williams, along with instructions ‘to obtain the consent of the chiefs from East Cape to Ahuriri, the present-day port of Napier.’ [1] Williams was joined by a teenaged student of Māori, George Clarke Jnr, who also acted as a witness to the signings on the East Coast between 5 May and 9 June.
After 24 chiefs signed at Tūranga earlier in May, three chiefs of the Ūawa (Tolaga Bay) area signed the East Coast sheet of the Treaty of Waitangi on 16 and 17 May: Rangiūia and Pare-kahika of Ngāti Porou and Te Tore of Ngāti Matepu.
The total number of signatures collected on the East Coast was 41, well short of the expected 70–80. They did not include that of the paramount chief Te Kani a Takirau.
[1] Claudia Orange, The Treaty of Waitangi, Allen & Unwin, Port Nicholson Press with assistance from the Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington, 1987, p. 71
