Why was a Treaty needed in New Zealand?

Why was a Treaty needed in New Zealand?

In 1830 there were 100,000 Māori and 100 Europeans living in New Zealand. The behaviour of the Whalers, the Missionaries’ desire to help protect Māori rights and the Musket Wars were reasons that a treaty was needed. The Declaration of Independence was another contributing factor to the need for a treaty.

One reason that a treaty was needed was to help control the lawless behaviour of some of the British Settlers like whalers. This is important as the local people and Maori were upset with what was happening in Kororareka. This drunken behaviour when coming back to the shore caused many whalers to have fought in and between missionaries and Maori.  Also when coming back to shore from being at sea for 3 months many sailors got Maori women to be prostitutes. This caused diseases to be very prominent and this affected many Missionaries and Maori views of the whalers. But a treaty would hopefully be able to resolve these issues. 

Another reason that a treaty was needed was to protect Māori rights. One group that felt strongly about this was the missionaries. They were worried that the Maori were losing their rights to the land and that they saw that much of the Maori land was being sold to the British monarchy for not that much. 

Lots of land was being sold for muskets and food during the musket wars;  they felt that the land should have been sold for a fairer price. Along with this many Maori men and women were being treated unfairly. 

Therefore the Missionaries thought that the rights of the Maori needed to be protected. 

Another reason that a treaty was needed was the Musket Wars. These musket wars were devastating to the Maori population and it was estimated that in total they killed 20,000 Maori. Along with many being killed many more were enslaved. Also, Maori tribal borders changed rapidly and caused lots of conflict between the various tribes especially the tribes that had access to the muskets from early on in the war. The impact of this was that many Maori were killed or were enslaved. This caused many missionaries to regret selling the Maori muskets. Also, Maori had to sell much of their stuff to get muskets, especially the smaller tribes that hadn’t yet been able to buy muskets. So must missionaries thought that a treaty would improve the situation. 

The final reason that a treaty was needed was the existence of the Declaration of Independence.

Was the declaration of independence needed? Interestingly, the declaration of independence was needed so that the British Monarchy would be able to protect the Maori from the French and other nations that were trying to overtake the Maori land and culture but particularly it was needed for trade between the Maori and British. It also needed to be signed because missionaries were worried as New Zealand was becoming the “hell hole of the Pacific” and this plus many other things contributed to the signing of the treaty. The impact of this is that the Maori were more likely to sign the treaty. And that the fighting, prostitution and the spread of disease would stop.

In conclusion, a treaty was needed because it would hopefully help the Maori and missionaries live and work in New Zealand. It would also allow New Zealand to trade more legitimately and legally. Along with this, the British monarchy would be able to protect the Maori and their land with the signing of the treaty and allow them to more easily govern the missionaries and sailors. This was really needed at this time because sailors that were coming back from long excursions and were very rowdy. Due to this, the British monarchy wanted to establish laws and rules to govern the uncontrollable sailers. They also wanted to protect the Maori rights as many had gotten into fights with the sailers; that plus the musket wars soiled the Maori and Missionaries views on the sailer and traders. In future, establishing rules and laws allowed Maori to be able to go get help when things happened. I feel that the treaty was needed to help with trading, and to help with rules and laws that governed  New Zealand but, if it had been instated earlier the musket war may have not killed so many. Although this may have caused tensions between the British and Maori because while the Maori version of the treaty gave Maori rights over the land, the British version gave Queen Victoria sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand. I feel that the signing of the treaty was a solidifying part of New Zealand.

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