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Ngaro

Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.

Signing

Signature Sheet Signed as Probable name Tribe Hapū Signing Occasion
130 Sheet 1 — The Waitangi Sheet Ngaro Ngaro Ngāpuhi? Patupō, Ngāti Toro Mangungu, 12 February 1840

Ngaro signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 12 February 1840 at Mangungu, Hokianga.

The first speaker at the hui to support the treaty, he welcomed William Hobson as governor:

‘Welcome, welcome, welcome, Governor!’ cried Ngaro. ‘Here are the Missionaries; they come to the land, they bought and paid for it, else I would not have them. Come, Come! I will have the Governor. No one else perhaps will say “Yes,” but I, Ngaro, I will have him. That is all I say.’ [1]

[1] T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 140

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