Waikato Heads, late March or early April 1840

Reverend Robert Maunsell held a meeting to discuss the Treaty of Waitangi at Waikato Heads in late March or early April. Many of the 1500 people present were enthusiastic about the treaty and Maunsell acquired 32 signatures on the Waikato-Manukau treaty sheet. Maunsell and Benjamin Ashwell, who were both Anglican Church Missionary Society missionaries in Waikato, witnessed the signatures. Although the sheet was dated 11 April, the meeting is thought to have taken place earlier.

Maunsell said he had received a letter from Colonial Secretary Willoughby Shortland in March with instructions to ‘obtain the signatures of the Chiefs of Waikato amongst whom we reside’. [1] Shortland did not send a true copy of the treaty in the Māori language, but one of the English-language versions that was pre-signed by Hobson and dated 6 February 1840. Of the nine treaty sheets sent around New Zealand, the Waikato-Manukau sheet was the only one in English. Maunsell explained the word ‘sovereignty’ in the English treaty as meaning that the rangatira (chiefs) would keep their rights over their land, while the English queen would gain the power to make laws.

Maunsell was not sent any gifts to distribute to the signatories, as some other treaty witnesses were. This was not an issue on the day of the meeting, but the group later heard about the events around signing in the Bay of Islands, and especially at Hokianga, where blankets had been given. When Police Magistrate W.C. Symonds arrived at Waikato Heads on 3 April with the Manukau-Kāwhia treaty sheet, he found that the signatories were about to destroy the Waikato-Manukau treaty sheet. He was able to distribute blankets to these signatories, which calmed the situation.

Symonds had intended to get signatures on the Manukau-Kāwhia copy, but he discovered that the 17 hapū (subtribes) represented on the Waikato-Manukau treaty sheet covered almost all of the west coast of the North Island as far south as Mōkau. The few exceptions were the rangatira of Kāwhia and Aotea. Hearing that the Wesleyan (Methodist) missionaries in that area, John Whiteley and James Wallis, were willing to help gain signatures for the treaty, Symonds cut his trip short and sent the Manukau-Kāwhia treaty sheet to them, along with instructions on how to proceed.

Symonds retrieved the Waikato-Manukau treaty sheet from Maunsell and travelled back to Manukau Harbour to meet again with the Waikato rangatira Te Wherowhero.