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

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
180Sheet 1 — The Waitangi SheetParatene WaioraParatene WaioraTe AupōuriKaitāia 28 April 1840

Paratene Waiora (or possibly Kowaiora) signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 28 April 1840 at Kaitāia.

He gave the last speech before Nōpera Pana-kareao closed proceedings: ‘There is only one great man who cannot be killed, that is the tongue; it often stirs up great wars. My father, Nopera, was sitting in his house reading his Bible when they said he was gone to the north to kill the people. I say send away Pikopo [Bishop Pompallier]. Send him back; he is the cause of strife amongst us.’ [1]



[1] Quoted in T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 149


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