In 1831, 13 Maori chiefs wrote to the King of England asking him to be their guardian and protector. In this letter they wrote, 'We are a people without possessions (taonga). We have nothing but timber, flax, (both already in New Zealand when the Maori arrived) pork and potatoes (both brought to New Zealand by people from other lands).
We sell these things however to your people: then we see the property (taonga) of the Europeans”.
Virtually everything in New Zealand today, Christianity, the government, the laws, protection, food, animals, clothing, education, transport, communications, hospitals, sanitation, a written language etc, were brought to New Zealand by people from other lands. These people were prepared to share them equally with all the people of New Zealand, including Maori, thus honouring the Treaty of Waitangi. 'He iwi tahi tatou – We are now one people/Nation”.
Some Maori people now want to claim back what was already here when they arrived as their own, including fresh water but still share equally in the resources brought here by people from other lands. How ungrateful and greedy is that, especially when their chiefs admitted in 1831, 'We are a people without possessions (taonga)”.

Ross Baker, Palmerston North.