One New Zealand Foundation Inc.

New Zealand’s “True Rulebook Written in the 19th Century”

Was “Queen Victoria’s 1840 Royal Charter/Letter Patent”.

John Robinson has just written, (15 December 2024) “Modern New Zealand doesn’t need a rulebook written in the 19th century”.  Of course, John is referring to the Treaty of Waitangi, but he overlooked the fact, the Treaty was not a “Rulebook”, it was an agreement between Queen Victoria and the tangata maori asking them to give up their “tribal control” and in return, they would become British Subjects with the same rights as the people of England, no more, no less, and no partnership.

New Zealand’s true “Rulebook” came soon after 540 tangata maori chiefs had agreed to and signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.  New Zealand’s true “Rulebook” was Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840 as it set up our political, legal and justice systems under one flag and one law, irrespective of race colour or creed, but this is completely overlooked by our modern-day historians.

Unfortunately, these people have never researched the Charter of New Zealand and continue to publish this false history, and the majority of the people New Zealand, have fallen for it.

Below is a copy of Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter/Letters Patent dated 16 November 1840 that was issued under, “The Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”. This was the true “Rulebook written in the 19^th Century”, not the Treaty of Waitangi,

Charter of 1840. Constitution of the Colony of New Zealand.

 

The 1840 Constitutional Charter of New Zealand reads:

FIRST SITTING OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL OF NEW ZEALAND.

(From the New Zealand Government Gazette)

His Excellency the Governor, according to notice, opened the first session of the legislative council of New Zealand on the 24th May 1841. Hon. W. Shortland, Colonial Secretary, Hon. Francis Fisher, Attorney General, Hon. George Cooper, Colonial Treasurer, E. S. Halswell, Esq., one of the three senior justices, being present, received the oaths and took their seats in the Legislative Council accordingly. James Coates, Esq., was appointed Clerk of the Council, and took the oaths of office. His Excellency then delivered the following speech :— Gentlemen—I have availed myself of this early period to assemble the members of the legislative council for the purpose of bringing under consideration certain measures which the altered circumstances of the Colony seem to me urgently to require. At this our first meeting I deem it proper to draw your attention, not only to the Royal Charter, but to the highly, important instructions under the Royal Signet and Sign Manual which accompany it. The Charter, as you are already aware, erects the islands of New Zealand and certain dependencies into a separate Colony, under the Superintendence of a Governor and Commander-in-Chief. It constitutes a Legislative Council, who are empowered to enact laws and ordinances for the local government of the Colony; it authorises the establishment of Courts of Justice, and the issue of Commissions of the Peace; and, in fact, brings into complete operation British laws throughout the whole Colony of New Zealand. The instructions under the Royal Signet and Sign Manual more particularly define the functions of the Governor and Council, and in a clear and conspicuous manner point out the duties of each. In order that you, gentlemen, may have an opportunity of acquainting yourselves with those particular duties, I have directed the instructions to be laid on the table, and kept open for your perusal in the Council Chamber. I regret that I cannot at the present meeting lay before you the Estimates of the ensuing year, which, although in a forward state of preparation, are in-complete, owing to the non-arrival of directions from the Lords of the Treasury, of which I am advised, and which may be daily expected. I shall lay before you an ordinance for the present re-adoption of all such acts of New South Wales as were in force previous to our separation, and are now applicable to this colony. It is not my intention, however, eventually to propose for your adoption the laws of New South Wales, but it will be my endeavour, during the recess, aided by the advice and assistance of the Law Officers of the Crown, to prepare for your consideration such laws as will best provide for the administration of justice, and the contingencies of social life, which may be expected to arise in New Zealand ; therefore the measures now proposed to you must be deemed temporary and contingent, as re-sulting from the present peculiar condition of the Colony. By Command of Her Majesty I will bring under your consideration the repeal of the Land Commission Act, and submit for your adoption an ordinance for the same general purposes, but granting to the Governor of New Zealand the same powers as those heretofore enjoyed by the Governor of New South Wales. I will likewise lay before you bills for the regulation and collection of the revenue of Her Majesty’s Customs, for establishing courts of quarter sessions and requests, and for the prohibition of distillation. These, gentlemen, are the only subjects for the present on which I shall require you to deliberate. We have, gentlemen, a solemn and important duty to perform ; by our means conflicting interests are to be reconciled ; harmony and tranquility established, and measures are to be adopted for improving the condition and elevating the character of the aboriginal inhabitants. In this salutary work I confidently look for your cordial assistance and co-operation, and I trust under Divine Providence we shall be enabled to accomplished these important objects, and to give effect to Her Majesty’s Gracious and benign views for the welfare, prosperity, and civilization of this Colony. Alter laying on the table the Indemnity Bill, the Governor adjourned the Council until Thursday, the 27th May, 1841.

New Zealand. Anno quarto Victoriæ Reginæ. No. 1. An Ordinance to declare that the laws of New South Wales, so far as they can be made applicable, shall extend to, and be in force in, Her Majesty’s Colony of New Zealand from and subsequent to the   date of Her Majesty’s Royal Charter and Letters Patent, erecting into a separate Colony the Islands of New Zealand, and to indemnify the Lieutenant Governor and other officers thereof for certain Acts done and performed between the date of the said Royal Charter and Letters Patent and the day of passing this ordinance. Whereas by an Act of the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales, made and passed in the third year of the reign of Her present Majesty, entitled ” An Act to declare that the Laws of New South Wales extend to Her Majesty’s Dominions in the Islands of New Zealand, and to apply the same, as far as applicable, in the administration of justice therein, and to indemnify certain Officers for Acts already done.” After reciting that Her Majesty had been pleased to annex Her Majesty’s Dominions of New Zealand to the Government of New South Wales, it is enacted that all Laws and Acts or Ordinances of the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales, which then were, or thereafter might be, in force within the said Colony should extend to and be applied in the administration of justice within Her Majesty’s Dominions in the said Islands of New Zealand, so far as they could be applied therein. And whereas, under and by virtue of an Act of Parliament made and passed in the fourth year of Her said Majesty’s Reign, entitled, ” An Act to continue until the thirty-first day of December, one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, and to the end of the then next ensuing Session of Parliament, the Provisions of any Act to provide for the Administration of Justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, and for the more effectual Government thereof, and for other purposes relative thereto,” Her Majesty did, by Her Royal Charter and Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the sixteenth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and forty, erect into a separate Colony the Islands of New Zealand, theretofore comprised within or dependencies of the Colony of New South Wales, with all other islands lying between certain latitude and longitude therein mentioned. And did further provide that from thenceforth the said islands should be known and designated as the “Colony of New Zealand.” And whereas, by Her said Royal Charter and Letters Patent, Her Majesty did constitute a Legislative Council for the said Colony of New Zealand, with full power and authority to make and ordain all such Laws and Ordinances as might be required for the peace, order, and good Government of the said Colony. And whereas it is expedient, until all such Laws   and Ordinances can be well considered and ordained, that all such Laws, Acts, and Ordinances of New South Wales as are applicable to the Colony of New Zealand should continue to be acted upon and be applied therein. And, in order to remove any doubt which may exist whether the said Laws, Acts, or Ordinances of the said Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales are and continue in force within the said Colony of New Zealand from and subsequent to the date and proclamation of such Her Majesty’s Royal Charter and Letters Patent.

1. Be it therefore enacted and ordained by his Excellency the Governor in and over the Colony of New Zealand, with the advice of the Legislative Council thereof, that so much of all and every of the Laws, Acts, and Ordinances heretofore made by the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales, and now in force therein, as have already been, and can hereafter during the continuance of this Ordinance be, applied within the said Colony of New Zealand shall be, and the same are hereby, adopted and declared and directed to be extended to and applied in the Administration of Justice in the said Colony of New Zealand, in the like manner as all other the Laws of England, and as if the same had been repeated and re-enacted in this Ordinance. And whereas doubts may arise as to the validity of Acts done and performed in the said Colony of New Zealand since the date of her said Majesty’s Royal Charter and Letters Patent by his Excellency as the Lieutenant Governor of the same, and by Justices of the Peace, Officers of the Customs, Constables, and other officers, under and by virtue of the said in part recited Act of the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales ; for the removal
2. Be it therefore further enacted that the said Lieutenant Governor of the Colony of New Zealand, and all Justices of the Peace, Officers of the Customs, Constables, and other officers, and all persons whom- soever therein who may have acted under and by virtue of any commission or appointment of her Majesty, or of the governor of New South Wales, or of the said lieutenant governor of the said colony of New Zealand, or under any orders and directions of the same Lieutenant Governor, or of his Excellency the Governor, since his assuming the Government of the said Colony of New Zealand, previous and up to the passing of this Ordinance, shall be, and they, and each and every one of them, are hereby indemnified against, and freed and discharged from, all damages, penalties, and forfeitures to which they, or any one of them, may have heretofore, or may now otherwise be liable for any act so done or performed.
3. And be it further enacted that no act done or performed by any such officer or other person aforesaid, shall be questioned or avoided in any Court of Law, by reason of any supposed want of power and authority, and that all such acts so done and performed shall be, and they are declared to be, as valid and effectual in Law, to all intents and purposes, as if each of such officers and persons aforesaid had done and performed such acts within and under, or by virtue of, any Law or Statute of the Parliament of Great Britain and Ireland.

And be it further enacted and ordained that in all or any of the said Acts of the Governor and Legislative Council of New South Wales, which shall under and by virtue of this ordinance be brought into operation, and extended to and applied to the said Colony of New Zealand, whenever the words ” Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, Governor, Justice, or Justices of the Peace, or Government Gazette, of New South Wales,” are used in such Act or Acts, the same words shall be construed to mean, and shall include and extend to ” the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council of New Zealand,” or “Governor for the time being,” or ” all or any Justices or Justice of the Peace, and to the Government Gazette of the said Colony of New Zealand;” and that all words or expressions referring, and having relation, to New South Wales shall be, and the same are hereby directed to be, applied and construed to extend to the said Colony of New Zealand. WILLIAM HOBSON, Governor.   Passed the legislative council this 3rd day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one.

JAMES COATES, Clerk of Councils.

The Charter of 1840. Constitution of the Colony of New Zealand into a separate colony. 16 November 1840. 

This disc was supplied by the Chief Archivist, Archives New Zealand before the Constitution Room at Archives New Zealand was dismantled and the Royal Charter was hidden from the public’s view in Archives storeroom. If future researchers want to research it now, it must be ordered, but that’s only if they know it exists. Do you?

The Tiriti o of Waitangi was in fact, only one of Six Documents that made New Zealand into a British Colony under one flag and one law, irrespective of race, colour or creed.                                

See: http://onenzfoundation.co.nz/the-six-documents-that-made-new-zealand-into-a-british-colony/

Researched by: The One New Zealand Foundation Inc. from documents held in the New Zealand, Australian and American Archives, plus the British Parliamentary Papers. www.onenzfoundation.co.nz. 18/12/2024.