Recently (25 June 2010) some of you may have noticed an advertisement on the Letters page of The Weekend Sun.
The subject was the Treaty of Waitangi, and the main thrust of the content was that the Treaty used in the Waitangi Treaty Act 1975, is a bogus one.
While I was not responsible for the advertisement, I did help John Porter with it, and I can assure you that the above paragraph is completely true.
I did this because being brought up in the East Coast, I have had a long and happy association with many Maori.
Like John, who indeed has Maori relatives, he and I were not demanding compensation back, or wishing to set alight further non-sensible debate. Our focus was to put the truth out into the real world.
Whoever in Labour (either within the Party, or as an outside influence) was responsible for this glaring and perfectly verifiable mistake in the Waitangi Treaty Act 1975, really no longer matters.
But what does matter is, that now it is known about by the general public (and our present politicians have all been made aware of it yet again) steps should be taken to correct the situation.
We, and possibly many others, are sick of seeing the ‘gravy train' of those in control, forever stirring the pot for more and more compensation, with very little of it filtering down to ordinary, every day Maori.
Our desire was, and is simply this.
It is time the people of New Zealand came together and proceeded forward as one unified country. Anything else is hypocrisy.
R McGuinness, Tauranga
John Porter, PO Box 8077, Havelock North 4157. Ph 022 635 9160