Port Molyneux : the story of Maori and pakeha in South Otago : a centennial history : commemorating the landing of George Willsher and his companions at Willsher Bay, June 28, 1840 : with a programme for the unveiling of the centennial cairn, erected by the Clutha County Council, June 28, 1940
Taiaroa Visits Sydney
Taiaroa Visits Sydney.
We have reason to believe that Taiaroa was in Sydney at the same time as Tuhawaiki, because Taiaroa said in a last statement: “To all my Tribe, to my Hapu, and to my son,” and dated 17th February, 1862:—
It was I and some other chiefs that went to Port Jackson (Sydney) and arranged a covenant there, in which we placed the whole of the island of New Zealand under the Sovereignty of the Queen, and the covenant was drawn up there, and the Governor of that colony gave a token of honour, also the Queen's flag to me, and to Tuhawaiki… We agreed to these arrangements of the Governor of New South Wales, and that covenant was established. After that was the Treaty of Waitangi, and I and my tribe agreed a second time…”
Other records say that the party of five chiefs headed by Tuhawaiki refused to sign anything for Governor Gipps in Sydney because he page 41 would not ratify the sales of land they had already made to Wentworth, George Jones, and others.
Whatever they refused to sign in Sydney in January, it is a matter of history that both Tuhawaiki and Taiaroa signed the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand a few months later.