What a bonanza the American media would have if it could be proved that Donald Trump was unaware of the Declaration of Independence. That is a fiction, but in New Zealand we have a similar scenario. It appears that the members of officialdom from Prime Minister down are ignorant of Queen Victoria's Royal Charter, November 1840. That would matter little if it were not our founding document. The Treaty only made us a subsidiary of the colony of New South Wales. The charter, by Royal Proclamation, made New Zealand a fully, self-governing colony with international status.

The Prime Minister did not know of the charter's existence. Some officials may have known but judicially remained silent because to acknowledge it would have required its acceptance, thus nullifying the purported principles of the Treaty.

The chiefs, in signing the treaty, granted the Queen full sovereignty, enabling her to enact laws that ended internecine conflict between Maori and civil unrest, as it was intended to do.

Te Papa, depreciating its existence, has removed it from public scrutiny into the vaults of Archives while exalting the Treaty to the National Library at a cost of $7.2 million.

To verify, Google 'The Royal Charter.' Kiwis wake up!

B Johnson, Omokoroa