{"story":["The trigger was Charles de Thierry, an Anglo-French adventurer who said he had bought land and sovereignty in the Hokianga and planned to set up a state there. Busby feared the scheme could stir up fighting between tribes, and saw in it a chance to advance his own aims. He called northern rangatira to his house at Waitangi to decide on a reply, and on 28 October 1835, 34 of them signed. NZHistory says Busby drafted the English text and Henry Williams translated it; Te Ara names Busby, Williams and the printer William Colenso as its drafters. Eruera Pare Hongi wrote out the copy that was signed. NZHistory adds that Busby was feuding with Thomas McDonnell, who held the post of Additional British Resident at Hokianga, and used the occasion to reassert himself.","The declaration had four articles. The first declared the country independent and named the confederation 'te Wakaminenga o nga Hapu o Nu Tireni' (the United Tribes of New Zealand). Article two placed 'kingitanga' and 'mana i te wenua', sovereignty and authority over the land, with the rangatira, and barred anyone else from making law or governing in their territories unless appointed by them. The third set an annual autumn meeting at Waitangi to make laws for justice, peace and trade, and invited the southern tribes to join. The fourth thanked King William for recognising their flag and asked him to act as a parent and protector to their young state. The two texts did not quite match. The Waitangi Tribunal found that Busby's English placed authority in the chiefs 'in their collective capacity', an intention the Māori text did not carry.","Busby sent the English version to Sydney and London. Governor Bourke dismissed it as 'a paper pellet fired off at Baron de Thierry', and in the Colonial Office one official thought it 'silly and unauthorised', but Lord Glenelg recommended it to the King, and the Crown formally acknowledged it in May 1836, though the Waitangi Tribunal reads that reply as only a guarded offer of protection. The promised congress never met, partly because of fighting between tribes in 1836–37, although Ngāpuhi histories say Te Whakaminenga kept gathering. Signatures went on being added until July 1839, reaching 52, among them Te Hāpuku from Hawke's Bay and the Waikato leader Te Wherowhero, later the first Māori king. At the first treaty signing, on 6 February 1840, 26 of the more than 40 chiefs who signed had also signed the declaration.","For a long time Pākehā historians gave it little weight. Keith Sinclair called its recognition of Māori sovereignty a 'polite fiction'. Claimants before the Waitangi Tribunal challenged that view, and in its 2014 stage 1 report for the Te Paparahi o Te Raki inquiry the Tribunal found that the declaration asserted the sovereignty and independence of the signatories' hapū, a point on which claimants and Crown agreed. It also found that rangatira had transferred no authority to a central assembly. Separately, it concluded that the rangatira of the Bay of Islands and Hokianga who signed te Tiriti that February did not cede sovereignty, a conclusion the Crown had disputed. It said the continuities between the two documents put an onus on Hobson to explain how the treaty would override the declaration, and that no such explanation seems to have been given. The Tribunal added that this says 'nothing about how and when the Crown acquired the sovereignty that it exercises today'."],"sources":[{"title":"He Whakaputanga signed by northern chiefs","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/page/declaration-independence-signed-northern-chiefs","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"He Whakaputanga me te Tiriti – The Declaration and the Treaty: The Report on Stage 1 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry (Wai 1040)","url":"https://forms.justice.govt.nz/search/Documents/WT/wt_DOC_85648980/Te%20Raki%20W.pdf","publisher":"Waitangi Tribunal"},{"title":"Te Paparahi o Te Raki (Northland) inquiry","url":"https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/inquiries/district-inquiries/te-paparahi-o-te-raki-northland/","publisher":"Waitangi Tribunal"},{"title":"Declaration of Independence","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/declaration-of-independence-taming-the-frontier","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"He Whakaputanga - Declaration of Independence, 1835","url":"https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/interactive/he-whakaputanga-declaration-independence-1835","publisher":"NZHistory, Manatū Taonga"},{"title":"He Whakaputanga – Declaration of Independence: The contents of the declaration","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/he-whakaputanga-declaration-of-independence/page-2","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"He Whakaputanga – Declaration of Independence: The aftermath of the declaration","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/he-whakaputanga-declaration-of-independence/page-3","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Busby, James","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1b54/busby-james","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"},{"title":"Hobson, William","url":"https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1h29/hobson-william","publisher":"Te Ara — the Encyclopedia of New Zealand"}]}