Richard Matthews' hysterical letter dismissing the brilliant book 'Twisting the Treaty” is typical bluster from someone who does not like being presented with true facts and figures. His assertion that the British intent was to dispossess the Maori 'by stealthy illegal acts with no legal recourse for Maori” is ridiculous! Dispossess them of what?
The Treaty explicitly states that Maori keep their lands unless they wish to sell land via the Crown.
Maori were delighted to find they could do this and sold huge areas of land, sometimes the same land over and over again. As for Maori having no 'legal recourse”, this statement is at odds with the fact that thanks to Chris Finlayson, Maori have now been given no less than $36 billion in land, revenue, forests, fisheries etc etc. Many of the Claims made were highly questionable and would have been dismissed in a good Court of Law.
Now we have the Maori Party trying to push through a written Constitution based on the Treaty. Because the Taurangeans are a vociferous lot a meeting was arranged with hardly any publicity, at the smallest hall in the HistoricVillage. This was attended by about 300 people who, due to a lack of seating, had to stand or sit on the floor! Michael Cullen was obviously taken aback by the crowd and at times the meeting became very heated.
Cullen was a typical politician in that he never gave a straight answer to a straight question. People came away no wiser than when they arrived. If this goes through it will empower iwi to question our every action and law. We must stand up for our freedom and not be led down the path to apartheid.

Mary Brooks, Avenues.