Disputed

The claim made on this plaque next to the grave of Hobson in the Symonds Street Cemetery, has been and remains disputed. The British asserted that Maori ceded sovereignty to the British Crown, then personified by Queen Victoria. Maori deny that they ceded anything remotely resembling sovereignty over the land, or the rivers, or the plants and animals. At most there was expressed in the Te Reo version (the Maori language version) the agreement to an equal partnership. This disagreement, and Government and settler actions to confiscate land, to "purchase" land from one member of a whanau who had joint claim to the land, resulted in increasing conflict, which culminated in the land wars of the late 19th Century. The ill effects of those events can still be seen today, with many young Maori detached from the land of their ancestors, alienated from society, unengaged in education, lacking reasonable job prospects, and involved in drug use and crime of varying seriousness.

The promise of the Treaty was an equal partnership, with no loss of sovereignty. The reality is that so many Maori lack access to many of the ten Central capabilities identified by Nussbaum. The words on this plaque ("ceding Sovereignty to the British Crown") were never the way Maori saw and see the Treaty. That for almost 150 years, Government acted on that premise has resulted in many Maori lacking the opportunity to fully develop the tenth capability "Control over one's environment".