Governor Grey asked the colonial secretary. Lord Stanley. how far he had to abide by the treaty. the unequivocal reply in the name of the queen was: "You will honorably and scrupulously fulfill the conditions of the Treaty of Waitangi." For more than a decade following the treaty signing. this official attitude prevailed. and the treaty was recognized and observed as a contract binding on both parties. The influence of this attitude. however. diminished considerably as the administration of New Zealand passed to a settler government under the Constitution Act of Continuing immigration created increased demands for land and assertion of crown authority. Pressures between settlers and the Maori people finally culminated in the New Zealand wars of the 1960s. In 1877 recognition of the treaty had declined to the point where Chief Justice Prendergast was able to say that the treaty was a simple nullity.
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immigration