Even more Maori wards signature collectors are needed now that the Taupo District Council, the Gisborne District Council, the Ruapehu District Council and the South Taranaki District Council have proposed Maori wards.

There is an argument going on at the moment about replacing the statue of James Cook on Mount Titirangi at Gisborne. Barney Tupara, a representative of Ngati Oenone says that the first meeting between Maori and Pakeha was violent and nine Maoris were killed. This is a blatant example of the lies Maori activists tell now about the first encounter between Maori and Europeans, and when it is not a lie it is a distortion of the truth. The journal of Captain Cook is clear, four or five Maoris were killed, the only query being if one was killed or injured, and it was the result of Maori aggression.

A horn wailed and men dressed as warriors danced at 2.45am in Wellington yesterday as the James Busby draft of the Treaty of Waitangi was quietly removed from public display.