An 'optimistic' view of troubled history
“This is my first book and likely to be my last,” says Ned Fletcher, Auckland lawyer, occasional historian and reluctant writer.
If there will only be one, make the most of it. This is a very big book before us. At more than 700 pages, and weighing in at 1.5kg, The English Text of the Treaty of Waitangi is the size of a large brick.
It is big in terms of subject, too, tackling the most important and contentious story in New Zealand history – the origins and meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi.
The question Fletcher sought to answer is this. What did the British authors, or framers, of the Treaty intend? Was the Treaty a calculated deception, as some still believe, or was it more humanitarian?
It all hangs on the much debated issue of whether the English and Māori texts of the Treaty can be reconciled. Fletcher argues they can be.
Link to video and article: The lawyer and the Treaty: An 'optimistic' view of troubled history | Stuff.co.nz
