The Treaty of Waitangi

For the past few weeks our class have been learning about The Treaty of Waitangi such as when it was signed and what happened to it. It was signed on the 6th of February 1840 in two languages, English and Maori. The Treaty of Waitangi was almost destroyed on more than one occasion. In fact it was almost destroyed three times.

One of the times it was in a fire in ta cottage in Official Bay, Auckland. After that the treaty was then transferred from the Colonials Secretary's Office in Auckland to Wellington. There the treaty documents were locked in a basement and were never seen again until they were rediscovered in 1908. The Treaty of Waitangi had been half eaten by rats and had been partially water damaged. Then the treaty documents were locked in a tin case and stored in the strongroom at the Department of International Affairs. A conservator inspecting the treaty in 1966 found it had buckled and was fading because of the fluorescent lighting. More treatment was carried out on the documents between 1977 and 1979 and was successful. Today the Treaty of Waitangi is on permanent display in Wellington in the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand.

This climate-controlled secure space was opened in 1990 when New Zealand marked the 150th anniversary of the signing of the treaty. In early 2012 the government spent more than $6 million to relocate the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand building in Mulgrave Street to a renovated building in Molesworth Street, Wellington. The amount of money spent by the government demonstrates the value that New Zealand places on the treaty and the associated documents. the treaty documents themselves are considered to be priceless.

By Owen Brown and Georgia Bleasel