Originally Posted by RobClubley

Actually this has been proven to be mostly untrue. It's a lie perpetuated by the Europeans. The Moriori were a Maori tribe who left NZ to live in the Chatham Islands. They were a peaceful tribe and didn't have the warlike, cannibalistic tendencies of other Maori tribes.

Some Taranaki Maori hired a European ship to go off and invade Samoa but decided to go to the Chathams instead.

A Moriori greeting party was mis-interpreted as a war party and the Taranaki Maori attacked and slaughtered them, taking slaves and eating them, almost wiping them out.

So the myth about the moriori being here first is untrue.

It's also not correct to talk about "The Maori" as a unified people because historically they never were. They have always been a tribal and secular culture and were always fighting inbetween iwi etc.

Even in the land wars in the 1800s, Maori fought alongside the British against other Maori.

Originally Posted by Patrick2007

Lets not split hairs here Charles its their country though u know what i mean it certainly isnt ours. is it.

Originally Posted by CharlesMacLeod

No offence intended, and I hope none taken. I was simply trying to make the point that using historical events to excuse current petty (and not so petty) crime is not justifiable. If you go down that route then I could state that it was perfectly within my rights as a Gael to steal my wife's wine gums, as she is English and therefore the beneficiary (by descent) of those who carried from the Clearances. Excusing or justifying crime this way makes no real sense...

At the end of the day there can be no ethnic justification for breaking the law, wherever you are or wherever you come from.

Originally Posted by Patrick2007

Think everyone is missing the point here, what iam saying is the MAORI were there first. When we the British arrived ashore we werent met by a fellow Englishman saying "alright mate whats happening" were we............