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Waitangi Day 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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New Zealand’s Vice-Regal couple travelled throughout New Zealand to mark Waitangi Day on 6 February 2008. Their Excellencies, Hon Anand Satyanand, and Mrs Susan Satyanand, arrived in Waitangi a few days earlier and attended a reception on HMNZS Canterbury on 4 February. The following day they attended a luncheon hosted by the Waitangi National Trust Board and reviewed a "Beat Retreat" and Ceremonial Sunset Ceremony at Waitangi conducted by the Royal New Zealand Navy. They then hosted a reception at the Copthorne Hotel at Waitangi where the Governor-General gave his annual Bledisloe Address—which marks the contribution of Lord and Lady Bledisloe, who bought and gifted the Treaty grounds to New Zealand in 1932. On Waitangi Day, Their Excellencies attended a breakfast hosted by the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Helen Clark, before being flown by the Royal New Zealand Air Force from Kerikeri to Napier. In the Hawke’s Bay, they attended the Waitangi Day Family Celebration organised by the Maori Millennium Committee in partnership with Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Inc. The festivities, at Farndon Park on the banks of the Clive River, attracted a crowd of more than 10,000 people. After receiving a formal wero (challenge), the Governor-General briefly spoke to the crowd before touring the park grounds and meeting the thousands of New Zealanders who were enjoying the day. The celebrations, one of the largest in the country, included a re-enactment of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, waka rides, touch rugby competitions and a large number of food and arts and crafts stalls. In the early afternoon, Their Excellencies flew by scheduled flight to Auckland where they hosted a Garden Reception at Government House Auckland, where more than 800 people enjoyed the glorious summer sun and were entertained by a Royal NZ Air Force band. The Catholic Bishop of Auckland, Most Rev Patrick Dunn, read the Bledisloe Prayer—written by Lord Bledisloe for the first Waitangi Day celebrations in 1934—and entertainer Tina Cross sang God Defend New Zealand. The Governor-General also gave his annual Waitangi Day address, in which he urged all New Zealanders to participate in the debate about the role of the Treaty of Waitangi. “What the “spirit of the Treaty” is or means has been the subject of much debate. I see this not as a cause for concern but as one of optimism. The importance of this ongoing discussion was well put by a French essayist, Joseph Joubert, when he said: It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. “New Zealanders have much to rejoice about their nation’s history and prospects. Ours is a young country, that one commentator wryly observed is of a similar age to the invention of photography. But in that short time, New Zealanders have conquered the world’s highest peaks, split the atom, and excelled internationally in sport, in science, literature, cinema and in the creative arts.”
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