P. Dey is quite incorrect to claim that Maori are indigenous to New Zealand. All his quoted evidence only confirms when Maori arrived and nothing else.

He is sadly and badly misinformed. Maori are not indigenous, certainly according to various dictionary definitions, for example from Collins: 'Indigenous people or things belong to the country in which they are found, rather than coming there or being brought there from another country.”

Maori are not indigenous to New Zealand because they migrated here from several Pacific islands, clearly confirmed by their own history.

By their own tradition, the spirits of Maori when they die return to Hawaiki, their original homeland, leaving from Cape Reinga. Hardly credible for a claim to being indigenous.

Aborigines in Australia are indigenous, as are the bushmen of South Africa, as are native Americans, having lived in their countries for many thousands of years.

Yes, Maori were the first migrants to settle here in numbers, although others were already here, possibly Moriori. The fact remains that as a people Maori are migrants, like all of us who have settled here. Yes, Maori arrived before others by several centuries - a mere heartbeat in the history of human evolution.

P Hickling, Papamoa Beach.