CHAPTER V.
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CHAPTER V.
Did the treaty of Waitangi carry out in letter and spirit the kind of policy indicated in Chapter H. ?
FEW observations on this subject are now necessary. The treaty, certainly, is silent as to many matters of the highest importance to the Native race; but still it does not affirm any principle at variance with a sound policy. Had it been more special it might have elicited more objections, and been less intelligible. It dealt with the two great points on which a wholesome policy of colonization must be founded, --namely, on the one side, an absolute abandonment of anything like sovereign rights on the part of the Maories, and an acknowledgment of the general and absolute sovereignty of the British Crown; and, on the other, the specific assurance to the Maories of the undisturbed enjoyment of the beneficial interest in their lands.
