Chapter IV: The Maori Magna Charta (3)

"There is no doubt that this treaty has a _mana_ peculiar to itself, and that the natives regard it with respect. They believe that they have thereby voluntarily given up to the _Pakeha_ a something which is their loss and the _Pakeha's_ gain; but what that something is they are quite unable to define. I feel pretty sure that if, from any accident in the early days, this document had been lost or destroyed, the natives would never have been induced to sign another. That it was once saved from such accident the following will show: In 1841 the Government offices were held in a four-roomed wood cottage in Official Bay, Auckland. The Colonial Secretary, the Audit, the Colonial Treasurer, and the Customs each had one room. Mr. Shortland was Colonial Secretary (the Audit was also under his control), Mr. Cooper was Colonial Treasurer and Collector of Customs. There were four clerks in the establishment--Grimstone in the Treasury, Leech in the Audit, Freeman and myself in the Colonial Secretary's. We were the Government in those prehistoric days. I was called Clerk of Records, and had charge of the various records and papers--not many then--amongst them this Treaty of Waitangi. This, with the seal of the colony, I kept in a small iron box brought from Sydney in the _Westminster_ the year before. I was living in a _raupo_ whare in Queen Street, close to Shortland Street, at that time ('41), when early one morning--I can't remember the precise date--I observed a great body of smoke ascending from Official Bay. I at once ran up Shortland Street, and on reaching the top of the hill found that the Government offices were on fire. When I got to the building one end was in flames and the place full of smoke. I saw that nothing could save the place. I at once tied my handkerchief over my face, got the door open, and rushed into the room which the Colonial Secretary occupied. I could not see for the smoke, and the handkerchief both blinded and choked me. The room was small, and I knew it so well I could put my hand on anything in it blindfold. I at once went to the iron box, unlocked it, took out the Treaty of Waitangi, and the seal of the colony, and ran out again directly. I suppose from the time I entered the building until I left it was not more than a minute, but it seemed an hour. I carried the seal and the treaty to the house of Mr. Felton Mathew (Surveyor-General), which was close by, and gave them into his charge. When I got outside the burning offices several persons had come up, amongst them some seamen from a French man-o'-war, then in harbour. They had a portable fire-engine, but it was useless, for there was no water. Of course the building and its contents were all destroyed, amongst them the iron box from which I had taken the seal and the treaty. The box was made of common sheet iron.

"I subsequently fastened the different sheets of the treaty together and deposited it in the Colonial Secretary's office, where I presume it has been ever since."

To commemorate the signing of the treaty, Mrs. Busby planted the Pohutukawa tree still growing in front of the old Residency (see illustration).

The Maoris have also erected a monument on the opposite side of the river, beside what is known as the Treaty House, where they at one time hoped to establish a Parliament of their own. The monument was unveiled by the Hon. William Rolleston, Native Minister, on March 23, 1881.

The original documents comprising the Treaty of Waitangi are now in charge of the Department of Internal Affairs.