Jabarkan salinan Manukau-Kawhia, dari Perjanjian Waitangi dalam bahasa melayu

About 50 meetings were held from February to September 1840 to discuss and sign the copies, and a further 500 signatures were added to the treaty. A number of chiefs and some tribal groups refused to sign, including Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (Waikato iwi), Tuhoe, Te Arawa and Ngāti Tuwharetoa and possibly Moka 'Kainga-mataa'. Some were not given the opportunity to sign. A number of non-signatory Waikato and Central North Island chiefs would later form a kind of confederacy with an elected monarch called the Kingitanga. (The Kingitanga Movement would later form a primary anti-government force in the New Zealand Land Wars.)

Pada 21 Mei 1840, Leftenan Gabenor Hobson mengisytiharkan kedaulatan Britain ke atas seluruh negara itu (Pulau Utara melalui Perjanjian ini dan Pulau Selatan melalui penemuan) dan New Zealand dipisahkan sebagai jajahan yang berasingan daripada New South Wales pada 16 November 1840.

Hari ulang tahun penandatanganan perjanjian ini diperibgati sebagai cuti umum di New Zealand bernama Hari Waitangi pada 6 Februari. Sambutan Waitangi Day pertama dilakukan pada 1947 (meskipun ada terdapat juga majlis peringatan sebelum ini) dan hari tersebut tidak dijadikan cuti am sehingga 1974. The commemoration has often been the focus of protest by Māori and frequently attracts controversy. The anniversary is officially commemorated at the Treaty house at Waitangi, where the Treaty was first signed.