Nga Tohu

In 1840 more than 500 chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document. Ngā Tohu, when complete, will contain a biographical sketch of each signatory.

Signing

SignatureSheetSigned asProbable nameTribeHapūSigning Occasion
170Sheet 1 — The Waitangi SheetWiremu WirihanaWiremu WirihanaTe Rarawa?Kaitāia 28 April 1840

Wiremu Wirihana signed the Treaty of Waitangi on 28 April 1840 at Kaitāia.

He spoke at the signing, saying, ‘They tell us you are come to murder all the Maoris, but if your works are good you will come to preserve us. If you are like the Missionaries that will be good. We fear the soldiers.’ [1]


[1] Quoted in T. Lindsay Buick, The Treaty of Waitangi: or, how New Zealand became a British colony, Mackay, Wellington, 1914, p. 148

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