All the cards

Right-wing libertarians may laugh at Morgan Godfery’s assertion (Seymour is right about one thing, Nov 30) that in 1840 Māori, from their sovereignty, carved out a subservient power of governorship to the Crown.

But Māori in 1840 held all the cards because the 1836 Declaration of Independence confirming sovereignty in the Māori tribes was recognised internationally and specifically by King William IV. Seymour, by choosing the English version of Ti Tiriti over the signed Māori one may well find it comes back to bite him in the select committee.

John Waldron, St Albans