with how to allow for direct dealings between Maori and settlers. He says that, although it had the intention to grant Maori a freedom to deal in their land, the Crown also had to consider how and to what extent it should superintend these dealings.

CONCLUSION

54.       To conclude these opening submissions, the Crown acknowledges the task that the Tribunal has before it and the contribution already made to that task by the claimants.

55.       The writing of history is never a straightforward matter, and it is made all the more difficult when it is being done with immediate and practical consequences in mind. The Crown simply asks therefore that the Tribunal listens to and evaluates all the evidence with a view to providing for the claimants, the Crown and for posterity an account of the past that is a credible one, and one that has historical, and historiographical, integrity. An account that gives credit to the Crown where credit is due will not result in the Crown ignoring the Tribunal’s report or refusing to negotiate with claimants. Rather, it is likely to give the report a broader acceptance within the community as whole and thus ultimately widen the mandate the Crown has – fairly to settle just claims against it.

56.       To end, counsel wishes to read Allen Cumow’s 1943 poem Sailing or Drowning -.

In terms of some green myth,

Sailing or drowning,

Each day makes clear a statement to the next;

But to make out our tomorrow from its motives

Is pure guessing, yesterday’s were so mixed

Papa, Atea, parents of gods or islands,

Quickly forgive the treacherous beaches, none

So bloodily furrowed that the secret tides

Could not make the evening and the morning one