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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 32

Chapter V

page 36

Chapter V.

Did the treaty of Waitangi carry out in letter and spirit the kind of policy indicated in Chapter II.?

Few observations on this subject are now necessary. The treaty, certainly, is silent as to many matters of the highest importance to the Native race; but still it does not affirm any principle at variance with a sound policy. Had it been more special it might have elicited more objections, and been less intelligible. It dealt with the two great points on which a wholesome policy of colonization must be founded,—namely, on the one side, an absolute abandonment of anything like sovereign rights on the part of the Maories, and an acknowledgment of the general and absolute sovereignty of the British Crown; and, on the other, the specific assurance to the Maories of the undisturbed enjoyment of the beneficial interest in their lands.