The English text of the Treaty of Waitangi is widely considered to be different from the Māori version signed by rangatira - the latter held to reflect that Māori never ceded sovereignty, and retained tino rangatiratanga.
Flowing from his interest in the Colonial Office of the 1830s and how English law was brought to New Zealand, historian and lawyer Ned Fletcher argues in The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi that the authors of the English version saw ‘sovereignty’ as consistent with continued Māori self-government.
While Fletcher's interest in the treaty is quite separate from his day job as a Crown prosecutor, it does run in the family: his mother is former Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias, who acted for the Māori Council in treaty cases, including the famous 1987 Court of Appeal case, which recognised the preeminence of the Māori version.
Ned Fletcher Photo: Supplied
