In response to Richard Matthews epistle in which he kindly offers to widen my 'ever-narrowing mind”, I would like to suggest he try and cure his tunnel vision by researching facts before he rushes into print. Regarding the word 'Taonga”, when Maori Chiefs first wrote to King William asking him to help save them from other tribes, they said 'We have nothing, only flax, timber, pork and potatoes”.
The official book commemorating the Te Maori exhibition which went to New York in 1984, leaves no doubt that 'taonga” meant anything other than 'tangible treasures”. The Maori adviser and authority on this unique exhibition was Professor Hirini 'Moko” Mead of Victoria University . In his book 'Tikanga Maori” (2003) he carefully defines the term taonga as a 'highly prized OBJECT”.
The Treaty states that land could be sold if there is desire to do so, through the Crown. Maori had no idea that land had commercial value and were delighted when approached with offers of money. Large tracts of land were sold, sometimes the same piece over and over again.
Queen Victoria, who reigned over vast territories, did not want to take on a small country on the other side of the world inhabited by cannibalistic tribes. She very reluctantly did so by allowing it to become another colony. Matthews seems to be unaware that New Zealand is the only country to be colonised where the Maori were given equal rights with the British.

Mary Brooks, Tauranga.