File:Cook Strait (Henry Williams) Sheet, Te Tiriti o Waitangi (12195249795).jpg

The Rev. Henry Williams, translator of the Treaty, left the Bay of Islands on the Ariel on 2 April 1840 with two sheets. One was given to his brother William Williams at Tūranga (Gisborne) on 8 April (the East Coast sheet). The second was this Cook Strait sheet, also known as the Raukawa Moana sheet and the Henry Williams sheet.

Williams arrived at Port Nicholson (Wellington) in mid-April, but for 10 days no rangatira signed. A meeting was finally arranged on Williams's schooner Ariel on 29 April, and 34 rangatira signed.

Further rangatira signed at Queen Charlotte Sound (4-5 May) and Rangitoto (D’Urville Island, 11 May). He then travelled along the west coast of the North Island and received the agreement of several chiefs at Ōtaki, Waikanae, in the Manawatū, at Wanganui and Motu Ngārara, a small island off Kapiti.

Williams had intended to take the copy to Otago, when he returned to Kapiti in early June he learned that Bunbury had already taken his own sheet (the Herald sheet) south. Williams then returned to the Bay of Islands with his 132 signatures.

The sheet has the names of several women: Kahe Te Rau-o-te-rangi, Rangi Topeora and Rere-o-maki. It is possible that other women may have signed, for example Pakewa and Kehu, the name that the mother of Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake was known by.

You can view the names of those who signed, as well as an interactive map, at the nzhistory.net.nz ‘Making the Treaty’ page: www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/interactive/henry-williams-tre...

The Cook Strait sheet is quite different from the rest: carefully set out within a double border, the text is set out in three neat columns with marks indicating which are the principal chiefs of different tribes and other explanatory symbols. The signature of Hobson is genuine but shaky.

Archives Reference: IA9/9 Sheet 8 archives.govt.nz/exhibitions/permanentexhibitions/treaty/...

This record is part of #Waitang175, celebrating 175 years since the signing of of te Tiriti o Waitangi. You can see other real time tweets on Twitter (twitter.com/ArchivesNZ), or explore the Waitangi 175 album here on Flickr.