Articles in ‘History’

So, it becomes very clear what had happened with the various documents: (a) Reverend Maunsell had not been able to use his official document, sent to him from Government House in the Bay of Islands and signed by acting Lieutenant Governor, Willoughby Shortland, as it had arrived 3 days too late. He had used, instead, materials on hand to conduct his meeting on the 11th before 1500 Maori, conveniently gathered in for their hui business meeting.…

His words live on. This month we are observing the words of a man whose footprints across the pages of history are indelibly tattooed into the global psyche in such a manner as never before seen in modern history. · That the world is still fascinated by this man’s life and compellingly by his death lies not so much within the allegory of the mythic hero being cut down in his prime on his quest for the Holy Grail but more in the words that he…

Every year we celebrate the attempt by a group of English dissidents to blow up the English parliament over 400 years ago. · Every November the letting off of fireworks results in a flood of claims to ACC, sends horses through fences and terrorises cats and dogs, keeps fire brigades busy battling blazes and has insurance companies running for cover. Why do we do it? Well, fireworks are fun, as the Chinese discovered centuries ago. Many of us…

THIS IS THE ONLY TREATY DOCUMENT EVER ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR USE IN THE TREATY PRESENTATION AND SIGNING ASSEMBLIES AT MANUKAU, PORT WAIKATO AND KAWHIA. NOTE: IT IS IN THE MAORI LANGUAGE! The foregoing is the ONLY official treaty document (handwritten by James Stuart Freeman in Maori) ever issued by the colonial government for use in the signing ceremonies at Manukau, Waikato Heads and Kawhia. These regions and districts, nominated for…

From the horses that powered commerce to the occasional whale spotted in the Thames, animals were as much a part of as the English capital as its people. Claire Martin explores the menagerie of creatures that kept medieval Londoners moving, fed and entertained… With a population that peaked at approximately 80,000 in 1300, and plateaued in the wake of the Black Death at around 40,000, London was never short of human residents. The merchants,…

Lord Normanby’s brief to Hobson was written by James Stephens, Permanent Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office (London) and son of a prominent abolitionist. The brief was essentially written by the anti-slave movement of Britain, initiated by William Wilberforce (1759-1833). The Mission of William Cornwallis Symonds. · On the 13th of March, Shortland sent a newly made, signed Maori copy, penned by James Stuart Freeman and bearing Shortland’s…

Without adequate supervision or a stringent directive to remain singularly consistent in despatching only one strictly worded English version of the Treaty of Waitangi, Freeman produced several variations. For these, he simply dipped, at will, into the 12-pages of rough, superseded and now obsolete draft notes in his possession and extracted text to make ad-hoc composite treaty versions. During February and March of 1840, he mostly used…

How did the Treaty of Waitangi, intended as it was from the outset to be a formula for unification and a totally egalitarian fair and friendly society, get so distorted after 1975? The true meaning and intent of the treaty was well understood for 135-years, until tampered with and maliciously reinvented by self-serving greedy opportunists. These twisted individuals, their lawyers and moral-coward rent-a-prick historians, couldn’t care less…

I recently discovered a fascinating book, ‘The Titanic and the Indifferent Stranger’, by Dr Paul Lee, a physicist. In it he outlines a compelling argument that the Titanic was not lost in a collision with an iceberg in April 1912, but instead went on to serve as the Olympic, her almost identical twin sister. The saga began on September 20, 1911, when the Olympic was involved in a collision with the cruiser, HMS Hawke, in the Solent. · The…

The following is a letter, that speculation claimed that Albert Pike wrote to Giuseppe Mazzini in 1871 regarding a conspiracy involving three world wars, that were planned in an attempt to take over the world. The Pike letter to Giuseppe Mazzini was on display in the British Museum Library in London until 1977. This letter has been claimed by many internet sites to reside in the British Library in London, which denies the letter exists. ·…