# The authentic and genuine history of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand, February 5 and 6, 1840/Introduction

INTRODUCTION.
Before the writer enters on the subject of the following pages, he thinks it right to inform his readers why it became written in the manner it is, and how two persons wholly disassociated came to unite in supporting it.
First: It was thus written in its present condensed form by the writer, from notes taken at the time, for the secretaries of the Church Missionary Society, London. It will be seen that he was not only present, but had a little to do on that occasion, also, both before and after it, in his then more particular vocation in the printing-office of the Church Mission at Paihia, near Waitangi, of which he was the printer and superintendent, but without any assistants. And here he may further observe that had he not been so closely worked at that time (both for the newly-established Government and the mission), without any assistant and under many peculiar disadvantages, his MS. would have been much larger. And it was solely owing to his many heavy and pressing duties that he did not attend the great public meeting held two days after at Kororareka (now Russell), when the foundation of the newly-formed colony was duly proclaimed with the usual demonstrations of show and ceremony. This also accounts for the non-appearance of his name among those of the Europeans who signed as witnesses on that occasion.
Second: Mr. William Richard Wade, hitherto a member of the Church Mission, was about to leave both it and New Zealand, with his wife and family, to reside in Tasmania. Mr. Wade and the writer had come out to​gether as missionaries in the same ship to New Zealand, and had always been on the most intimate terms. Mr. Wade had also, formerly, in London, been in the employ of the Church Missionary Society, in their Mission-house in Salisbury Square, as one of their secretaries, and was a trustworthy and very clear writer. He had lived at Te Waimate down to the time of his leaving New Zealand, but was not able to attend the great meeting at Waitangi, and therefore the writer gave him his MS., open, to read during the voyage and (if he should have time) to copy for the Church Missionary Society. This he did, and so the MS. was returned to the writer, minus the printed appendices—of which, however, there were still a few spare copies remaining. In those days, and for long after, our correspondence with England generally went by the way of Sydney. It may further be briefly mentioned that Mr. Wade, after living several years in Tasmania (Hobart Town) as a Baptist minister and teacher, died there some years ago. He wrote and early published there a small but interesting volume of his “Journey in New Zealand.”
Third: Mr. James Busby, formerly and for many years the British Resident in New Zealand (his official position terminating on the arrival of the Lieutenant-Governor, Captain Hobson, R.N.), was also leaving New Zealand with his family for Sydney by the first ship thither. Mr. Busby and the writer were also very intimate. A ship having at last arrived in the Bay of Islands bound for Sydney (the “Eleanor,” Captain W. B. Rhodes, a gentleman long afterward known in this colony as one of its early and energetic settlers, and filling several high political situations), passages were taken by her for both Mr. Busby and Mr. Wade and their families, and on the 25th March the writer accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Busby on board; Mr. Wade subsequently embarking from the mission-station at Te Puna, on the farthest north side of the bay.
Fourth: During the passage to Sydney Mr. Busby read the said MS., which he had not previously seen, and also added a few valuable notes, which the writer has faithfully ​copied (ipsissima verba), inserting them where Mr. Busby had placed them. And this, in the writer’s opinion, has rendered this little narration of those circumstances doubly valuable as a historical reminiscence of what then really took place, the same being now attested by two capable witnesses, acting independently, yet agreeing in the relation.
The writer has also availed himself of this opportunity of laying before his readers copies of the treaty in English and in Maori, and also of the three early and chief Proclamations relating to the foundation of the colony.
Postscript.
Were the writer now and for the first time to leisurely write (from his old original notes) a relation of what took place at the signing of the treaty, he should, no doubt, make some alterations (possibly improvements) in the language and style used in a few places. But on consideration he has decided not to alter it in any instance, so that the narration should stand as Mr. Busby read it, and with his full acquiescence in its correctness. For this reason, also, the old and early mode of writing Maori (the not using the wh character, &c.) has been retained. And this last also applies to all the Maori papers herein published in the appendices.