Editing Treaty of Waitangi (section)

====New Zealand Wars and land sales====
{{main|New Zealand Wars}}
The growing disagreement over British sovereignty of the country led to several armed conflicts and disputes beginning in the 1840s,{{sfn|Walker|2004|p=135}} including the [[Flagstaff War]], a dispute over the flying of the British [[Union Flag]] at the then colonial capital, [[Russell, New Zealand|Kororareka]] in the [[Bay of Islands]]. The [[Māori King Movement]] ({{Lang|Mi|Kīngitanga}}) began in the 1850s partly as a means of focusing Māori power in a manner which would allow them to negotiate with the Governor and Queen on equal footing. The chiefs justified the King's role by the treaty's guarantee of {{Lang|Mi|rangatiratanga}} ('chieftainship').{{sfn|Orange|1987|p=120}}

FitzRoy's successor [[George Grey]] was appointed Governor in 1845. He viewed the Protectors as an impediment to land acquisition and replaced them with new officials whose goals were not to protect Māori interests, but rather to purchase as much land as possible.{{sfn|Walker|2004|p=136}} Grey restored the Crown's right to pre-emption bypassing the [[List of statutes of New Zealand (1840–90)|Native Land Purchase Act]] in 1846, which contemporary writers viewed as a "first step towards a negation of the Treaty of Waitangi".{{sfn|Orange|1987|p=88}} This ordinance also tightened government control of Māori lands, prohibiting Māori from leasing their land and restricting the felling of timber and harvesting of flax.{{sfn|Orange|1987|p=88}} A high court case in 1847 (''[[R v Symonds]]'') upheld the Crown's right to pre-emption and allowed Grey to renegotiate deals made under Fitzroy's waiving of the pre-emption clause.<ref name=":1">''[[R v Symonds]]'' (1847) NZPCC 388</ref>{{sfn|Orange|1987|p=58}} Governor Grey set out to buy large tracts of Māori land in advance of settlement at low prices, later selling it to settlers at higher prices and using the difference to develop land access (roads and bridges).<ref name="Donald McLean" />{{sfn|Walker|2004|p=137}} Donald McLean acted as Grey's intermediary and negotiator, and as early as 1840 was aware that Māori had no concept of the sale of land in British sense.<ref name="Donald McLean" /> Soon Māori became disillusioned and less willing to sell, while the Crown came under increasing pressure from settlers wishing to buy.<ref name="Donald McLean" /> Consequently, government land agents were involved in a number of dubious land purchases, agreements were sometimes negotiated with only one owner of tribally owned land and in some cases land was purchased from the wrong people altogether.<ref name="Donald McLean" /> The whole of the South Island was purchased by 1860 in several large deals, and while many of the sales included provisions of 10 per cent of the land set aside for native inhabitants, these land area amounts were not honoured or were later transmuted to much smaller numbers.{{sfn|Walker|2004|p=139}} In some cases Grey or his associates bullied the owners into selling by threatening to drive them out with troops or employ rival chiefs to do so.{{sfn|Walker|2004|p=142}}

Conflict continued to escalate in the early 1860s, when the government used the Māori King Movement as an excuse to invade lands in the eastern parts of the North Island, culminating in the [[New Zealand land confiscations|Crown's confiscation]] of large parts of the [[Waikato]] and [[Taranaki]] from Māori.<ref name="New Zealand Wars">{{Cite web |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/new-zealands-19th-century-wars/introduction |title=New Zealand's 19th-century wars |date=15 August 2015 |website=NZ History |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |access-date=25 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706044724/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/new-zealands-19th-century-wars/introduction |archive-date=6 July 2017}}</ref> The treaty was used to justify the idea that the chiefs of Waikato and Taranaki were rebels against the Crown.<ref name="First Decades4">{{Cite web |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/treaty-of-waitangi/page-4 |title=Treaty of Waitangi – The first decades after the treaty – 1840 to 1860 |last=Orange |first=Claudia |date=20 June 2012 |website=[[Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand]] |access-date=25 July 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522112230/http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/treaty-of-waitangi/page-4 |archive-date=22 May 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Kohimarama Conference.jpg|thumb|Beach front scene at Kohimarama, Auckland, circa 1860, with Bishop Selwyn's Mission station where the Kohimarama Conference was held. Two [[Waka (canoe)|waka]], and a group of [[whare]], are visible in the foreground.]]
In July 1860, during the conflicts, Governor Thomas Gore Browne convened a group of some 200 Māori (including over 100 pro-Crown chiefs handpicked by officials){{sfn|O'Malley|2019|p=88}} to discuss the treaty and land for a month at [[Mission Bay, New Zealand|Mission Bay]], Kohimarama, Auckland. This became known as the Kohimarama Conference,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Paterson|first=Lachy|date=2011|title=The Kohimärama Conference of 1860: A Contextual Reading|url=https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs/article/view/487/619|journal=Journal of New Zealand Studies|issue=12|doi=10.26686/jnzs.v0i12.487|doi-access=free|access-date=9 October 2018|archive-date=26 January 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126064707/https://ojs.victoria.ac.nz/jnzs/article/view/487/619|url-status=live}}</ref> and was an attempt to prevent the spread of fighting to other regions of New Zealand. But many of the chiefs present were critical of the Crown's handling of the Taranaki conflict.{{sfn|O'Malley|2019|p=89}} Those at the conference reaffirmed the treaty and the Queen's sovereignty and suggested that a native council be established, but this did not occur.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/treaty-timeline/treaty-events-1850-99 |title=Treaty events 1850–99 – Treaty timeline |date=17 May 2017 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz |publisher=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |access-date=30 July 2018 |archive-date=31 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731031724/https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/treaty-timeline/treaty-events-1850-99 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/36360/kohimarama-conference-1860 |title=Treaty of Waitangi – Dishonouring the Treaty – 1860 to 1880 – Kohimarama Conference, 1860 |last=Orange |first=Claudia |date=20 June 2012 |website=[[Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand]] |access-date=30 July 2018 |archive-date=31 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731031804/https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/36360/kohimarama-conference-1860 |url-status=live }}</ref>