1858 letter of request—rangatira law makers. 1858 letter of request from queen victorias representative. The governor’s letter to the maori people of new zealand
To my friends,to the rangatira the law makers, and to every person of maori descent, right throughout these entire lands. Greetings to you all. Pay attention.in times past this land was closed due to badness, sadness and wrongdoing. There was no-one to maintain order and no-one to take care of wrong-doing. Over a period of time the missionaries arrived. They spoke to you the words of god. You looked at the goodness of the words the missionaries brought you. You found them sweet. You embraced them. You took the teachings for yourselves, these teachings of the faith. That is why the majority of badness ceased in this land. In regard to the missionaries, they preached to you first. Secondly, they taught you how to read. After that they translated the scriptures of god into maori, sent them off to the press and released them out to you all for consideration by that one and that one.
Now the government has arrived and we are giving you the laws of england. These laws speak to you. You are observing how we, the pakeha, exercise our law amongst ourselves. You see wrongdoing, pillaging, it is dealt with by this law; it is right that will be maintained regardless of whether they are a person of small means or great means.at this time, some maori people have begun to understand and agree to the goodness of this law to be the law for all people of new zealand, pakeha and maori, together.that is why i have ordered that these laws of england be written and translated into maori, sent to the press and now released them out to you all, for consideration by that one and that one.my book is not like that of the missionaries. The words in that book belong to god. They are words of wellbeing. However, my book i give to you all, is the condensed version of the laws, these good laws, wonderful laws; laws which have advanced england, made england great, made england chieftain; has given greatly to it’s peoples goodness, wellbeing and resources as they live here.
There is no other nation in the entire world that has a law this beautiful. It is england alone that has a law this good, this correct; and the entire nation loves their law. They obey the law, and they honour their law, and they hold it in high regard. To the person with bad intent, he stands alone; the reason being he is aware the entire nation embraces their law, and this brings great gladness and peace of mind that everybody supports the official guardian of the law, who is the nominated official, therefore there is no escape for that person.
Therefore through this process there is no concern for the policeman to carry out his office alone and to catch the person who has wronged according to the law. It is the entire nation who is his support backbone, and with that he is able to bring in the offender, on his own. Therefore, if the entire nation does no embrace their law, a large group could attempt to arrest the offender. This may be successful or it may not. It is for these reasons that i lay before you these laws, for you all to take and embrace, otherwise what would become of these laws; just as the teachings of the faith were laid before you all by the missionaries. So, if you see that these laws are good laws, take them. Embrace them; so that we may hasten our residing together as one, under one cloak, the cloak of law, so that we may grow together through goodness. This my friends is your letter. Speak about it, and when you get to the place where you do not understand the words, use the index provided.
Yours sincerely, from your obedient friend, t. Gore brown.
From the governor house of parliament auckland april 1858
This letter of request qualifies that Mauri are Rangatira – Crown – Kings = Queens – Law Makers – Crown of the Mauri Nation.
