Ryan Wood (The Weekend Sun, March 2) is correct there is no reference to ‘partnership' in the Treaty of Waitangi 1840. The notion of ‘partnership' is derived from a series of Court of Appeal decisions made during the 1980s, thanks to the late Justice Sir Robin Cooke, 7th President of the Court of Appeal. And I am inclined to accept the Court's view, being more credible than wild claims of a ‘partnership myth'. Secondly, in Peru there are over hundred varieties of kumara. There is general agreement that early Polynesian voyagers, possibly from Rapanui or the Marquesas visited South America and returned to their home islands with kumara, which later found its way to Aotearoa. Whether the original variety has been superseded by the obese American variety is neither here nor there. Who cares? Kumara are always expensive to buy at the supermarket. On the other claim concerning scholarships. What scholarships? Finally, it is not uncommon these days for the descendants of 19th Century Maori warriors to honour their forebears who fought it out with British imperial troops. And those same Maori descendants ask why there is no commemoration of 19th century British war dead as well?

C Reeder, Papamoa.